MOLINE, Ill. — MidAmerican Energy has warned its customers that it's seeing an increase in reported scam calls. On an average day, a spokesperson said the company has around 40 scam calls reported to them, but on Monday, Jan. 17, there were over 100.
A news tip from a viewer to News 8 said she was called four times on Saturday, Jan. 15. When she answered, it was a prerecorded message saying, “your MidAmerican service bill is overdue, and your service is due to be shut off in the next 30 to 45 minutes."
"That's scary," MidAmerican spokesperson Geoff Greenwood said. "And people, their logic says, 'Wait a minute, I'm pretty sure I paid my bill.' But the caller saying, 'No, you didn't. We didn't receive it. We've tried to contact you, and we are going to shut you off.' That's scary, and that's why this scam is so effective."
The most important thing to remember is that MidAmerican will never call you out of the blue and never demanding that you pay immediately over the phone, Greenwood said.
"We will let you know if you are behind on your bill through your bill, we'll let you know that you're past due," he said. "We'll send you a Past Due Notice also in the mail if it gets to that, and we will attempt to contact you. And we won't demand payment. We'll ask, 'What is going on? What can we do here? What's happening, let's talk about this and figure out a plan."
When in doubt, just hang up the phone, Greenwood added. MidAmerican is "not going to be offended if it's really us."
"Regardless of what your caller ID says, if the caller ID has a local number, if it's got an out of state number, even if it shows MidAmerican Energy, and that's possible, the bad guys can spoof caller ID," he said. "They can make your display show whatever they want to help further their scam. And that is really effective. So even if your caller ID says it's MidAmerican Energy, don't believe it. Hang up the phone."
Customers should also not call back the caller ID number. Instead, call the number that is on your MidAmerican bill or its website.
Greenwood's biggest tip to remember is: threat, immediacy and payment equals a scam. It's also important to never give out any credit/debit card information or account numbers out over the phone.
This recent uptick in reported scam calls comes after MidAmerican reported a 36% decrease in scams in 2021. In 2020, the company had 5,344 scams reported by customers compared to 3,626 in 2021.
If you receive a scam call, you are encouraged to report it to MidAmerican, local authorities, the FBI or the Federal Trade Commission.