Beware of a Phone Scam

The Brownsville Public Utilities Board wants to make all of its customers aware of a phone scam that is affecting people all over the country. Callers are posing as utility employees and demanding payments for a variety of reasons. These callers have said things like: a payment is past due; a previous payment did not go through; a payment must be made for a meter replacement; there’s a balance because of a meter malfunction.

After informing the customer of this, the caller instructs the person to buy a pre-paid cash card and call back with the details. These callers are not to be trusted! We have received reports that these callers have reached out to both residential customers and businesses and spoken English and Spanish. The caller might sound very convincing, but do not fall victim to an impostor!

BPUB does not use live callers to make collection calls. If you are behind on your account, you might receive a call with a recorded message. We would never ask our customers to make a payment through an unsolicited phone call. We always ask our customers to make payments online through our website, over the phone through our automated system, or in person at the BPUB Administration Building or authorized pay stations. Go here for a list of authorized BPUB pay stations.
If you think that you have received a scam phone call, just follow these steps. Hang up the phone. Call BPUB directly to verify your account information, and report the incident to the authorities.

Here’s a video that we created to raise awareness about these phone scam attempts:

Please help us spread the word about this phone scam. We want to do everything we can to protect not only our customers but those from other utilities as well. Remember to hang up, verify and report!