At least one small business in Roseville has been defrauded by a con artist posing as a Roseville Electric employee. Based on other calls into the City’s Utility Billing Division, it appears that the con artist has also called other local small businesses.
Yesterday afternoon the con artist, a female with a professional-sounding voice, called a small business and identified herself as a Roseville Electric employee. She told the business owner that unless she paid an overdue balance on her electric bill, the business’s power would be shut off. The owner provided her credit card number to the caller. The business owner later confirmed that her utility account was not overdue, and that Roseville Electric had not called. An amount of money was charged to her credit card, purportedly by an out of state company.
Important facts for Roseville residents and businesses:
Roseville’s Utility Billing Division has an automated calling system that calls to alert customers whose accounts are at least 19 days overdue and within two days of utility cutoff. The automated message gives customers the option of either selecting one number to pay over the phone, or another number to speak to a Roseville Utility Billing customer service representative.
No one from the City of Roseville will ever call a customer asking for personal information, including but not limited to credit or debit card numbers or bank account information.
Any utility customer who has a question about a bill, or who wishes to make a payment by telephone, should call Roseville Utility Billing at (916)774-5300.
