What to Know
- An apparent robocall scam is targeting FPL customers.
- After a comprehensive process, the scam tells people to purchase a prepaid card to make a payment.
- A robocall threatens to shut off service for the customer if payment is not made.
A comprehensive robocall scam that feigns to be from Florida Power & Light is attempting to deceive people out of hundreds of dollars.
"I'm seeing here – we have a disconnection order for two billing cycles ... in the amount of $499.63," one robocall told an FPL customer.
Rick Freedman, an attorney, received that call on Monday. He was stunned and did a Google search on the phone number, which showed online as an FPL number.
"I was floored. Absolutely floored that can even happen," Freedman said. "Every call I think is a scam right now and most of them I just blow off, but this one, because I hadn't heard it, I just figured I'd follow through just to see how far they would take this thing and I was amazed at how good it was, how polished it was."
Freedman wanted to see how far this scam would take the ploy.
After using a detailed automated and voicemail system, Freedman recorded a conversation with an operator that told Freedman to buy a prepaid MoneyPak card to use for paying his bill.
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Freedman knows that no company would make their customers use a prepaid card, but he worries other people may fall victim to the scam.
"People are falling for this thing. People are paying their hard-earned dollars. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck," Freedman said. "Maybe they're a week or two late on their FPL bill, and they're gonna fall for it and they're gonna get scammed."
