(Radio Iowa) Iowa’s largest utility is warning its customers to be wary if they’re using a search engine to find the company’s 800-number for customer service. MidAmerican Energy spokesman Dan Winters says scammers are using paid search engine ads to manipulate search results and steer people to fake phone numbers — with crooks waiting to take your call.
“These criminals have figured out that if you put a fraudulent number in enough places on the internet and you connect that phone number to a real company like MidAmerican,” Winters says, “then it tricks internet search results into assuming those two are connected when in fact they are not.” To pay a utility bill online, customers should go through the MidAmerican website, and Winters says, if they’re hunting for the address or phone number using a search engine, to review the results carefully before clicking.
“We don’t want people falling for this,” Winters says. “The way people can contact us with confidence is by first going to midamericanenergy.com, and then our phone number is listed prominently on monthly bills, on our mobile app, and that number, as always, is 888-427-5632.” The bogus numbers are changing frequently and were you to call one, the person who answers will be posing as a MidAmerican staffer.
“It’s some of the oldest tricks in the book, right? They’re trying to get personal information. They’re trying to get payment information,” Winters says, “and once they unlock those doors, then they can do a lot of damage to someone’s personal information.” If you think you’re being scammed or threatened, just hang up. He says MidAmerican never demands immediate payment through gift cards, cryptocurrency or other unconventional payment methods. Based in Des Moines, MidAmerican Energy serves 1.3 million electric and natural gas customers in Iowa.
