Oklahomans Being Scammed by Phone Calls Claiming to Be OG&E

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – It seems like every few months there is another scam making the rounds. One of the latest scams centers on an Oklahoma utility company and has already tricked some people into giving out their personal banking information.

Jerry Hall knew he never should have answered the call that came in at 7:05 a.m. with no return number on the screen. He did anyway.

"A girl called, said she was from OG&E," said Hall. "I had written a check for $106 and hadn't signed it."

Hall knew he had actually written a check to OG&E for $83.00. Then, the caller asked for Hall's debit card information.

"Like a dummy I gave her the last four digits on my debit card," Hall said.

Hall isn't alone.

"Several people in the Oklahoma City area have fallen victim to this crime, so it's certainly something we want to alert the population about," said Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Gary Knight. "We do not have a suspect identified in this case."

At the OG&E call center, almost all the calls are incoming, not outgoing. OG&E rarely calls customers about their bills--usually only when service is about to be shut off.

"It's my understanding that those would be typically returned as being unsigned," Brian Alford with OG&E said.

Hall got suspicious and called the bank before the woman could drain his account.

"If they catch them I'd like to see them prosecuted to the fullest extent, because there's no telling how many people they've done this to and really got a lot of money out of them," Hall said.

Next time he'll just let the phone ring.

If you receive a suspicious call from someone claiming to represent OG&E, you can call the company at 800 - 272 - 9741 for verification.