BPUB Participates in Utility Scam Awareness Day
BROWNSVILLE, TX – The Brownsville Public Utilities Board (BPUB) will join Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS) to recognize the fourth annual Utility Scam Awareness Day on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Utility Scam Awareness Day is part of the week-long National Scam Awareness Week, a campaign focused on educating customers and exposing the tactics used by scammers. This year’s theme is “It Happened to Me, Don’t Let it Happen to You.”
“Protecting our customers from scammers is of great importance to everyone here at BPUB. We want to educate the community so that they don’t fall prey to these types of schemes,” said BPUB General Manager & CEO John S. Bruciak.
UUAS is an association of more than 130 U.S. and Canadian electric, water, and natural gas utilities dedicated to combating impostor utility scams by providing a forum for utilities and trade associations to share data and best practices, in addition to working together to implement initiatives to inform and protect customers.
By joining the UUAS, BPUB will be able to educate its customers on new and ongoing scams nationwide. It will also help to cease operations of nearly 5,000 toll-free numbers being used by scammers when customers report a fraud. It is not uncommon for scammers to call, text, or email utility customers asking for immediate payment to avoid service disconnection.
As a reminder, BPUB will never send a single notification to a customer within one hour of a service interruption, and they never will ask their customers to make payments with a pre-paid debit card, gift card or any form of cryptocurrency.
Customers who suspect that they have been victims of fraud or who feel threatened during contact with a scammer should contact BPUB and law enforcement authorities.
For more information and tips on how customers can protect themselves from imposter utility scams, visit www.brownsville-pub.com, and follow BPUB’s Twitter and Facebook.