CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Nov. 8, 2013 – AEP Texas reminds area electricity consumers that scam artists posing as electric company personnel are continuing to call customers telling them they are behind on their electric bill and threatening to disconnect their electric service.  The customer is then told to purchase a “Green Dot” prepaid debit card or other type of reloadable debit card, load the card with money, and then provide the serial number from the card. Otherwise, they are told their electricity will be shut off.

Residential and commercial electric customers recently have been targeted in Texas, as well as other states including Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.

For example, a customer in Laredo this week received a telephone call in Spanish indicating that the electric meter at that residence was using too much energy and needed to be changed out to prevent the possibility of a fire.  The caller indicated that a technician would arrive at the residence in an hour and the customer would need to pay $205 for the new meter installation but would receive a reimbursement later or get credit in the monthly bill. The caller asked the customer to call a second phone number to make the payment arrangements by purchasing a special prepaid debit card.

Electricity users are reminded:

- Consumers who are unsure if the caller is with their electric supplier should hang up and call the number on the monthly bill they receive from their retail electric provider (REP).

- AEP Texas is an energy delivery company and does not call consumers asking for payment and/or threatening disconnection.

- A consumer’s REP will not ask for bank information or credit/debit card numbers over the phone.

- Consumers who are behind on their bills receive a written notice of a possible disconnection and how to prevent it — electric companies will not demand immediate payment over the phone.

- Customers who believe they have been a victim of this or any other scam should contact their local police department.

AEP Texas serves nearly one million electric consumers in the deregulated Texas marketplace. As an energy delivery (wires) company, AEP Texas delivers electricity safely and reliably to homes, businesses and industry across its nearly 100,000 square mile service territory in south and west Texas. AEP Texas also builds new power lines, restores service following outages and reads the meters for retail electric providers (REPs) throughout its service territory. The company also connects or disconnects service upon the orders of the REPs.

AEP Texas is part of the American Electric Power (AEP) system.  AEP is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5.3 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a 40,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.