Scammers posing as BC Hydro employees stole nearly $45,000 from customers in 2018, a record year for such scams.
BC Hydro says that since 2014, the company has received nearly 6,000 reports of customers being contacted by phone, email or text with threats to disconnect their power if they did not make a payment by pre-paid cash or credit cards or a deposit into a Bitcoin ATM.
Two thousand of those complaints came in the last year alone.
Vancouver, Nanaimo, Surrey, Vernon, Burnaby and Richmond were the most targeted communities in the province.
BC Hydro Community Relations Manager Ted Olynyk said that in 2017, Nanaimo customers received four phone calls from fraudsters, with two people falling for the scam.
Last year the number of suspicious calls in Nanaimo rose to 62, with three people falling victim.
In Victoria, scammers were only successful once in 35 attempts in 2017. Three customers fell victim to the scam out of 124 phone calls in 2018.
BC Hydro believes the scale of the problem might be worse because many scam attempts are never reported.
The company says it does not collect credit card or bank information over the phone, email or text, and it does not accept payment from pre-paid cards or Bitcoin. If a customer owes money, BC Hydro will send several notices by mail.
Customers can also check their account at any time on BC Hydro’s website.
People targeted by the scam are encouraged to call BC Hydro, report the suspected fraud to police and contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
