How to Recognize Caller ID Spoofing Calls
This month, more than 2 million Southern California Edison customers will receive customer service emails as part of the company’s efforts to raise awareness about caller ID spoofing.
Caller ID spoofing involves the use of special phone equipment and technology to deliberately falsify information on your display to mask the true origin of a phone call. The caller falsely claims to be from SCE or one of its partners to sell products, collect personal information or say a payment is due on your electric bill when it is not.
Southern California Edison takes privacy seriously and makes every effort to protect customers’ information."
Kari Gardner
SCE manager of
Consumer Affairs
Since May 3, SCE has sent out more than 1.2 million emails to residential and business customers. One million additional emails are scheduled to go out by the end of the month.
“Southern California Edison takes privacy seriously and makes every effort to protect customers’ information,” said Kari Gardner, SCE manager of Consumer Affairs. “And while there’s nothing we can do technology-wise to prevent spoofing, we can educate our customers and let them know these calls are not from Edison or our SCE partners.”
To Protect Yourself From Caller ID Spoofing Calls:
- Beware of unsolicited calls in which the caller asks you for billing information and other personal data.
- Never give out your Social Security number, electricity usage or meter information.
- Be suspicious of calls made multiple times per day and outside normal operating hours.
- Beware of callers who recommend the sale of home improvement products to reduce your energy costs or try to convince you to purchase alternative energy sources.
- Know that SCE does not send solar representatives to customers’ homes or businesses, nor does SCE have solar companies contact customers by phone.
- Never provide your MyAccount login credentials.
To learn more about Caller ID spoofing calls: Don’t Let Caller ID Spoofing Hang You Up. For more information, see SCE’s scam alert page: sce.com/scamalert.