Staff
If you’re a Fort Frances Power Corp. customer and you get a phone call threatening to shut off your electricity, ignore it.
It’s a scam.
President and CEO Joerg Ruppenstein told the Times the FFPC was made aware that Ontario was being targeted by a phone scam, in which the caller claims to be from a local utility and threatens to disconnect the customer’s electricity if they don’t make immediate payment with a credit or cash card.
The calls then started being reported by local residents and businesses–the majority of the customers being not in arrears but in good standing, he added.
Ruppenstein stressed this is not the FFPC–the utility simply does not operate this way.
“We, as the Fort Frances Power Corp., would never, ever ask for credit card or cash card information over the phone,” he noted.
The FFPC also has a very extensive disconnection policy that it has to go through as per the rules of the Ontario Energy Board.
“The last thing we do is cut power,” Ruppenstein said.
“We talk about payment options, we talk about funds that are available through social agencies to avoid disconnection–not threaten disconnection.
“Our standard procedure is you would get an arrears’ notice after you’re in arrears,” he explained.
“Then you would get a personal phone call,” he added. “You would get a door hanger on your door with a information brochure on where to find help and to call us.
“And then as an absolute last resort, we would come to disconnect your power,” Ruppenstein conceded.
“But even in that case, we would give two days’ advance notice of that happening, and we urge customers to contact us to discuss payment options, to discuss avenues that are available.”
The FFPC urges customers who receive such threatening phone calls to report them.
If you receive one, document as much information as you can, including the phone number, and report the incident to the RCMP’s anti-fraud section at 1-888-495-8501.
“And we ask people to spread the word: it’s not us,” Ruppenstein reiterated.
