Utility shutoff scam calls

How the scam works

The call may be a recording or a live person. It says your bill is past due and your service is about to be cut off. Some calls say your power will be shut off in the next 30 minutes.

Then they tell you how to pay. It's often a gift card, a prepaid card, a payment app, a wire transfer or cryptocurrency. Some offer to send a barcode by text or email and tell you to pay it at a store like Walgreens, CVS or Walmart.

In 2020, North Carolina's Department of Justice warned about robocalls pretending to be Duke Energy. They showed local numbers on caller ID and told people to pay through Cash App or with a prepaid card.

If someone shows up at your door saying they're from the utility, the FTC says not to let them pressure their way into your home.

What Duke Energy and other utilities say

Duke Energy says it will never tell you how you must pay or threaten instant disconnection. It says it doesn't take prepaid cards or cryptocurrency.

Duke Energy also says to contact it only through the official phone number or website listed on your Duke Energy bill.

The FTC says the same holds for any utility, whether electric, gas or water. Real utilities won't demand immediate payment to avoid same-day disconnection, or ask you to pay by wire, cryptocurrency, payment app or gift card. They also won't send you a barcode and insist you take it to a store to pay.

What to do if one calls

Hanging up and calling back is always safe.

• Hang up. Don't call a number the caller or recording gives you. It leads back to the scammer.
• Find your utility's number on a recent bill or its official website. Be careful with search results, because the top ones are often paid ads.
• Ask whether your account is really past due.
• Never pay a utility bill with a gift card, a prepaid card or a barcode someone texted you.
• Don't give a caller your birth date, Social Security number or bank details.

If you already paid

Don't be hard on yourself. These calls are built to rush careful people.

Contact the company you used to send the money, like the gift card company, payment app or bank. Tell them it was a scam and ask if they can reverse the payment. There's no guarantee, but act quickly.

Then report it. Tell your real utility, using a number you know is right. Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. In North Carolina, you can also call the Attorney General's consumer hotline at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or file a complaint at ncdoj.gov.

How Nexus handles it

Numbers on the spam list are refused, and most callers you don't know are asked who they are before your phone rings. An automated assistant tells the caller the call is being screened and may be transcribed, then asks who's calling and why. Anthropic's Claude reads what the caller says to decide what to do.

Real callers are put through, or leave a voicemail that's turned into text you can read. Calls with no caller ID are refused. A number caught as spam on more than one member's line, plus numbers from public FTC complaints, is blocked for everyone. Only the number is shared, never what was said.

People in your contacts always ring and are never blocked. If someone calls about a shutoff, hang up and call the number on your bill.

Nexus works on Android and iPhone, and you keep your own number and carrier. More about how it works is on the About page.

Nexus is invite-only. The price is on the wait list page, and you can cancel yourself any time.

Common questions

Sources

• FTC: Scammers Pretend To Be Your Utility Company
• FTC: Got a barcode from your utility company to make a payment? That's a scam
• NC DOJ: Watch out for Robocalls Targeting Duke Energy Customers (2020)
• NC DOJ: Protecting Consumers
• Duke Energy: Duke Energy leverages AI to protect customers and combat scams