Scamming, Blood Sucking, Enemies of the People

Robbo Calls are running wild again. Our national government is supposed to be stopping these unwanted calls, but it’s not happening.

The calls now have moved from annoying to blood sucking scams warning you that your utilities are about to be turned off because you have not paid your bill. At a time when people are pinching pennies and not working, these calls are beyond criminal. Over the weekend we had the same call three for four times. The phone number they told us to call was KeyBank, so they must have some type of follow up system that taps into your phone just waiting to see who rises to the bate. They call back five minutes later with the same message to shake you up again. It’s always a recorded message.

Here is what Puget Sound Energy has to say . . .

As a provider of an essential service, we are working to ensure we are here for our customers, our community and our employees as coronavirus impacts the region.
We know some of our business and residential customers might be worried about paying their bills. Here are measurable actions we’ve taken on behalf of our customers:

1. PSE will not be disconnecting customers for non-payment during this time.
2. During Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home – Stay Healthy” order, PSE will only respond to emergency and make-safe situations which require restoration of power or natural gas such as: outages, natural gas leaks/odors, and low-hanging wire. We will also be working to support the essential facilities and services as listed in Governor Inslee’s critical infrastructure throughout our community.
3. PSE will work with our customers on options such as payment plans and choosing a new bill due date.
4. PSE has multiple assistance programs, including the COVID-19 Pandemic Assistance fund, to help income qualified customers with their energy bill during this difficult time.
5. PSE is requiring our employees to maintain social distancing while working in the field. We encourage our customers to do the same when engaging with our employees.

Tacoma Public Utilities has similar information.

This is not something new. The News Tribune had a warning article about this in June of 2018. The scammers were back in September of 2019. What makes it even worse now is that people are already hurting and worried about their utilities, rent payments and mortgage payments.

In times like this we are so lucky to have St. Vinnie’s in our community to help with their Emergency Assistance program. “St. Vinnie’s is here to help. If you need emergency assistance to help pay for basic needs, such as rent, utilities, gas, food, clothing or links to other resources, we want to help.” – svdptacoma.org/get-help/

If you need help, please visit the St. Vincent de Paul website, and if you can donate to help our neighbors, please do that.

If you get a recorded robbo call threatening to shut off your utilities, just ignore it. If you have paid money to these scammers, please call our local police departments and report the incident and all of the details. This scam is a crime. Let’s do what we can to help our community and lock up these scammers forever.