Over the past month Mohave Electric Cooperative has received calls from members regarding a collection scam. As part of the scam, an alleged “MEC representative” calls and says crews are on their way to disconnect electric service and that the member needs to make a payment using a prepaid card. Unfortunately this is an ongoing type of scam that has been happening for a few years involving calls from scammers claiming to be from a utility, IRS, courts and law enforcement who demand payment with a prepaid card.
While MEC says calls have come from both business and residential customers, many members overall say they are paying attention to media reports warning them of such activity and to ignore requests by phone. A typical incident will end with the member calling MEC’s Member Service Office to see if it was legitimate and the answer is no. If an incident occurs on a weekend, or anytime during non-business hours, MEC members can also call the Co-op’s Outage Reporting number toll free at 1-844-MEC-COOP (1-844-632-2667) and select an option which allows them to speak with a representative and verify their account balance and status.
Keeping our members aware and on alert for fraudulent activity in their communities is a priority for Mohave Electric Cooperative.We know from communicating with our members that they have a lot of trust in the Cooperative and most likely when something like this happens, the first call they make is to MEC.
