Sayreville police put out an alert Thursday afternoon, warning about a scam, after some residents and businesses received phone calls from someone representing themselves as an employee of Jersey Central Power & Light Co., threatening to shut off their power.
Sayreville police warn community about new scam SAYREVILLE -- Police put out an alert Thursday afternoon, warning about a scam, after some residents and businesses received phone calls from someone representing themselves as an employee of Jersey Central Power & Light Co., threatening to shut off their power.
"The caller states something to the effect that he/she works for JCP&L and you are currently behind on your bill," the alert said. "They tell you that your power will be shut off today because the bill wasn't paid. They then give you a phone number to call to make a payment."
RELATED: PSE&G warns of spike in small business scams
When the person calls the number, the individual on the other end tries to gather the person's banking information to "take care of the past due bill and keep your power on," the police alert said.
JCP&L has confirmed this is an ongoing scam, police said.
Police told community members to visit https://www.firstenergycorp.com/help/safety/scam-info.html which is JCP&L's online guide to "Protect Yourself From Scams."
"Please be very careful with what personal information you give to unknown callers," the police alert said.
Ron Morano, a spokesman for JCP&L, said "we do not ever call a customer threatening to cut service."
He said it is because of scams like these that the utility, which is a part of First Energy, set up the web site about how its customers can protect themselves from scams.
"Any JCP&L customer who receives a call like that should hang up without giving any information, call JCP&L's customer service center and notify the authorities," he said.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
