About your unpaid FPL bill: That caller might be a scammer

With the holidays in high gear and COVID-19 running rampant, some FPL customers are being tricked into sending money to callers posing as customer service agents.

The callers’ message: Pay your bill or lose your service,

The trouble is, the bill already has been paid and the customer owes nothing.

Nonetheless, pushy, smoothtalking imposters who claim to work for Florida’s largest public utility press forward with their phone calls, persuading customers to wire them money or risk losing their electricity.

In November, the utility warned customers against engaging people who call them over the phone about their electric bills, The company used an industry Utility Scam Awareness Week as an occasion to tell customers that scammers have increased their phonebased assaults during the coronavirus pandemic.

They’ve “increased calls, texts, emails, and in-person tactics and are contacting utility customers asking for immediate payment to avoid service disconnection,” the utilities said in a statement.

“As a reminder, FPL will never send a single notification to a customer within one hour of a service interruption, and will never ask customers to make payments with a pre-paid debit card or gift card,” the utility said at the time.

Monica Martinez, executive director of Utilities United Against Scams, said scam me rs demand money or personal information on the spot — usually with threatening language — and indicate that service will be disconnected immediately. “Anyone and everyone, from senior households to small-business owners, is at risk of being targeted,” she said.

Some imposters demand immediate payment only with a prepaid phone card or wire transfer. They provide callback numbers that mimic the utility’s customer service lines.

On its website, FPL says its customer service agents never request those types of payments.

The utility says its combats scams aggressively, although no warnings appear on its homepage or in customers’ bills.

“We have an ongoing campaign throughout the year and through a number of channels, including printed and electronic newsletters, social media posts and media stories, to educate customers on how to protect themselves against scams,” said FPL spokeswoman Julia Book.