Supervisor warns community about potential Alliant Energy scam

Washington County Supervisor Bob Yoder wants to warn the community of possible scam calls from people who say they are from Alliant Energy.

Yoder said he received a call at his business that the power would be shut off within the next 30 minutes if he did not pay a set fee. Upon calling Alliant, he found out this is a common scam making its way across the state.

'Just for everybody's information, before they pull a stunt like that, you would get a letter and you get 12 days,” he said. 'I was very put out about that call; it was very disturbing.”

Justin Foss, spokesperson for Alliant Energy, said these scams are not limited to Alliant and happen to many different companies all over the U.S.

'Unfortunately, scammers target utility customers in Iowa and all over the country all of the time,” he said. 'It happens to anybody who pays an electric bill, a natural gas bill or a water bill. It's all over the place.”

Foss said typically, scammers do not target a specific kind of customer but anyone who they think will be gullible and pay the fee. He said most often this happens at restaurants where the scammer will call around 11 a.m., right before the lunch rush, and threaten to turn the power off because they are hoping the owner will panic and pay instead of realizing the deception.

'Their goal is to catch customers off guard and play with their emotions,” he said.

He said one sure way to determine whether the call is a scam or not is to pay attention to the method of payment the caller is asking for. Typically, scammers will ask for payment via reloadable debit or gift cards because they are not traceable by law enforcement.

Foss said if someone does get one of these calls, to hang up and ignore it. If the customer calls it in, Alliant will keep track of where the scams are coming from and contact law enforcement if necessary.

He said the company offers many ways for customers to keep track of their billing such as receiving text messages about when the bill is due, the amount and when that money has been taken out of their accounts.

'We have many ways for customers to reach out to us and to interact on their own time to know where they sit so they're not caught by surprise,” he said. 'We will never ask for payment over the phone.”

Foss said if someone is behind in their billing, they will be contacted multiple times and it should not be a surprise if the power is shut off because they have had advance warning. He encourages everyone to not panic about a potential scam call and keep track of their billing on their own.

'We just encourage customers to know where they sit and don't be afraid to hang up if it's a scammer,” he said.