During 2024, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers lost nearly $650,000 to utility scammers. To help combat this alarming trend, PG&E is joining the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help customers recognize and avoid potential scams.
Scams targeting utility customers continue at an alarming rate. In fact, during 2024, PG&E received over 26,000 reports from customers who were targeted by scammers impersonating the company, and customers lost $646,000 in fraudulent payments. Unfortunately, this number is likely just the tip of the iceberg for overall scam attempts, as many go unreported. The number of reports is continuing at a high level thus far in 2025, as PG&E received over 1,700 reports of attempted scams in January alone, with customers paying scammers nearly $22,000 during the month.
“Scammers will attempt to create a sense of urgency by threatening disconnection of your utility services if you don’t make immediate payment. Remember, PG&E will never ask you for financial information over the phone, nor will we ask for payment via pre-paid debit cards or money transfer services like Zelle. If you receive a call like this, hang up, and then either log onto PGE.com to confirm your account details, or you can call our customer service number,” said Jake Zigelman, PG&E Bay Area Regional Vice President.
Scammers are opportunistic and look for times when customers may be distracted or stressed and are constantly contacting utility customers asking for payment to avoid immediate service disconnection. As a reminder, PG&E will never call for the first time within one hour of a service disconnection, nor will we ask customers to make payments with a pre-paid debit card, gift card, any form of cryptocurrency, or third-party digital payment mobile applications like Zelle or Venmo.
Small and medium-sized businesses are also a target, and scammers will focus their efforts during busy business hours, preying on business owners’ sense of urgency to keep the doors open and the lights on. In fact, PG&E received over 1,200 reports of scam attempts targeting these customers during 2024.
Signs of a potential scam:
- Threat to disconnect: Scammers may aggressively demand immediate payment for an alleged past due bill.
- Request for immediate payment: Scammers may instruct the customer to purchase a prepaid card then call them back supposedly to make a bill payment.
- Request for prepaid card: When the customer calls back, the caller asks the customer for the prepaid card’s number, which grants the scammer instant access to the card’s funds.
- Refund or rebate offers: Scammers may say that your utility company overbilled you and owes you a refund, or that you are entitled to a rebate.
How customers can protect themselves
Customers should never purchase a prepaid card to avoid service disconnection or shutoff. PG&E does not specify how customers should make a bill payment and offers a variety of ways to pay a bill, including accepting payments online, by phone, automatic bank draft, mail or in person.
If a scammer threatens immediate disconnection or shutoff of service without prior notification, customers should hang up the phone, delete the email, or shut the door. Customers with delinquent accounts receive an advance disconnection notification, typically by mail and included with their regular monthly bill.
Signing up for an online account at pge.com is another safeguard. Not only can customers log in to check their balance and payment history, they can sign up for recurring payments, paperless billing and helpful alerts.
Scammers Impersonating Trusted Phone Numbers and Websites: Scammers are now able to create authentic-looking 800 numbers which appear on your phone display. The numbers don’t lead back to PG&E if called back, however, so if you have doubts, hang up and call PG&E at 1-833-500-SCAM. If customers ever feel that they are in physical danger, they should call 911.
A recent trend is that scammers are creating fake utility bill-pay websites that appear in internet search results.
Adds to the growing feeling of American consumers…”nothing left to trust”
FTC may not exist much longer
PG&E shouldn’t exist much longer. Trump should investigate that company. It should have been broken up into regional public utilities years ago. The history of PG&E looks like something out of the wild old west.
PG&E made $2.47 billion in profits in 2024. They are the real scammers here.
PG&E is a scam in itself. They save money by not performing maintenance then gives bonuses to its bosses. PG&E blew up San Bruno and starts forest fires because trimming trees is expensive. Their fines and damages comes out of future rate hikes.
It’s beyond that (trimming trees). We RV alot. Right after the Santa Rosa and Paradise fires, we were staying at an RV park near the fire areas. Next to us was a family from Colorado in a huge 5th wheel. PG&E hired him to assist with repairs and replacement of equipment. Not surprisingly, he let us know that they were replacing PG&E junk equipment from the ’50’s (well beyond its lifetime).
The real scam is PG&E and the CAPUC. The CAPUC is an appointed Commission. They owe their allegiance, to the utilities that pay for their excursions, and most importantlu, to the Governor, not to the rate payers.
If we want to make a difference, we opt (by ballot) to take this power away from the Governor and make it an elected body responsible to the people
A solution, charge scammers with felonies and
in case of us OLD folk add in a charge of elder abuse.
.
BUT, that would CA state legislature to put citizen’s interests
ahead of keeping criminals from being incarcerates.
.
If there is no threat of substantial incarceration,
there is no deterrence to criminal behavior
As I have before and will continue to do so
remind everyone that PG&E has murdered (morally correct term)
more of its customers than all the other Californian utilities combined. Remember that when you watch their attempts at reputation reconstruction
on TV and the radio.
They could have done it right to begin with
and all those people wouldn’t have died.
But they chose, deliberately to act criminally and here we are.
Just a couple bookmarked articles on CAMP FIRE,
.
2019
‘PG&E planned in 2013 to fix power line that may have started Camp Fire’
https://tinyurl.com/3htchz8f
.
‘Secrets of the Camp Fire: Revealed | Fire – Power – Money’
https://tinyurl.com/yka7kjdv
.
“IF YOU FIND IT YOU HAVE TO FIX IT
AND TO FIX IT COSTS MONEY”
PG&E is the real scam here. Watch their adds, where they claim they have actually reduced their rates from last year (after 4 rate hikes in 1 year).
The real scam here (the elephant in the closet) is the CAPUC. This board of clowns is appointed by the Governor. So for 16 years, we’ve been getting screwed while the CAPUC and the Gov. treat themselves to the profits from us paying our “rates.”
Let’s start a movement to eliminate the CAPUC (a Governor selected commission), and make them all elected. That way, there’s responsibility to the electorate.
There have been articles written about the history of PG&E. It was started by three brothers in the 1840’s to supply San Francisco with natural gas. I don’t know what they were like but there were a lot of opportunists and hucksters in the old west in the 1800s. But PG&E did not have a great history even before the Peninsula incident. There were studies done to see if breaking up was a good idea and they decided it wasn’t which makes me wonder if any bribery was involved because monopolies can go to great if illegal lengths to keep in power.
.
There was one particular article published by a northern California magazine that covered PG&E’s history very well. When I recently looked for it many more sites had published their own such articles.
The irony of that statement from that utility…delicious. 🤪