More Florida Power and Light scams hit a business in Weston demanding cash or it was lights out.
It's business as usual at La Torreta in Westin Monday night. There's a steady crowd. Families sat at outside for a slice of pizza. But earlier in the day, a phone call raised eyebrows with its owner and managers.
Manager Jeremy Letendre says the owner immediately thought it was suspicious.
"We got a call from some unknown number claiming to be FPL. They were going to shut off our power unless we paid from a cash card about a $1,000 worth."
The owner was instructed to go to a CVS or Walgreens and get a prepaid cash card or the power would be cut.
La Torretta hasn't been delinquent on any utility bills, but the supposed FPL representative was persistent in making it sound legitimate.
Letendre added, "They said they upgraded their system and the previous payment didn't go through. She needed to pay in cash up front."
And as if on cue, La Torretta's lights and power went out about 4 pm.
It's an incredible coincidence, but at that moment roughly 1,500 customers lost power because of a burned out switch box. It's similar to a blown transformer.
Unbeknownst to La Torretta, the power outage seemed legit, that it was a billing issue.
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The owner called FPL to explain the call she just received. FPL customer service explained she was being scammed and the company would never require a customer to use a Walgreen or CVS prepaid cash card.
FPL sent NBC 6 an email explaining this scam is an old one.
The newest scam is via email bill that looks similar to an FPL bill.
The power company says if it looks suspicious, do not click on any links and delete the email immediately.
To protect its customers FPL has a link on it's website detailing how to spot fraud and scams: www.fpl.com/protect.
