OG&E, Local Business Owner Warn Others Of Scam

OG&E and a local business owner are warning Oklahomans about a new scam. One woman almost fell victim, saying these scammers are becoming bolder and more professional.

“Unfortunately bad actors are trying to take advantage of all kinds of folks, including our customers,” said Christi Woodworth with OG&E

"I think many of us are trained at this point, if you get a call asking for money, asking you to go buy a gift card or asking you for your bank account number that we're getting trained not to say yes to, so I think they're having to get more resourceful,” said Kim Holzer, local business owner.

“You're not thinking it is a scam,” said Holzer.

It started with a phone call that one of Holzer’s employees answered. The person on the other end of the phone said that an OG&E worker was on the way to the business to shut off the service.

“I immediately froze thinking ‘Oh no did we not pay a bill,” said Hannah Landry, Holzer’s employee. “He said, ‘Oh well, you need to call customer service, here's a 1-800 number.”

The person calling claimed that Holzer’s OG&E bill had not been paid.

“I felt anger mostly because I knew we were paid,” said Holzer.

After searching online and paper records, both Kim and Hannah found multiple statements that proved they were up-to-date on all of their payments and didn’t owe any additional funds until the end of the month.

They were told that they would have to make a payment at an OG&E building, or could pay at Walmart. “It dawned on me at that moment that I might be loading up a prepaid credit card,” said Holzer.

Luckily they realized it was a scam before, and they paid, but say it was a close call.

“Our office is a group of younger professionals and we fell for it, no one was thinking this was a scam,” said Landry. “They seemed to know exactly what they were talking about, their script was very believable.”

“We simply don't do that,” said Christi Woodworth with OG&E.

Woodworth explains OG&E will never ask for payment over the phone, saying customers will be notified by mail or email.

"If it gets really close to somebody's power being disconnected, then an automated voice call would come through, you would get two of those but it would not be a live person asking for payment over the phone, or asking you to meet them somewhere or go somewhere to make a payment,” said Woodworth.

Woodworth adds that Walmart is not a place where OG&E has a payment kiosk, and anybody needing to make a payment in person can visit this website to find a kiosk near them.

If you do receive a call from a real person requesting payment over the phone, Woodworth says the best course of action is to hang up immediately and call OG&E to notify them.