Many of our clients across all major Ohio utilities, including AEP Ohio, FirstEnergy, AES Ohio, and Duke Energy have reported phone calls from individuals claiming to represent the “Customer Choice Program”, “Energy Choice Program”, “Price Protection Program” or some misleading version of the above. These callers state that you have been receiving notices regarding “additional protection or benefits available to your account” and “price protection”.
The caller will claim they need to verify information from your electric bill and frequently request the account number found on the second page of your electric bill. To appear legitimate they may provide the first few account number digits and claim they are verifying information already in their system. These beginning digits are the same across almost all customer accounts and do not prove they have access to your specific account information.
Are attempting to obtain and take control of your utility accounts
These scam callers:
- Do not provide a company name.
- Refuse to provide a valid callback number or email address.
- Are persistent, condescending, or aggressive when questioned.
We highly recommend you DO NOT provide any account information to anyone over the phone unless you are speaking directly with your MSI representative or your utility company.
If you receive one of these calls, we recommend you do not engage with the caller. Instead, provide them with your MSI representative’s name and phone number and refer them directly to us.
MSI is currently reporting these incidents to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and other appropriate agencies. Unfortunately, because these callers refuse to identify themselves and often use invalid callback numbers, enforcement can be challenging.
Safeguarding your accounts is a large part of what we do and we take it very seriously – if you have any questions or concerns, please contact your MSI representative immediately.