NIE Energy Warns Customers about Bogus Callers

6 Jul 2010

Local energy supplier NIE Energy would like to warn all customers following a series of bogus callers to householders across Northern Ireland.

Recently householders across Northern Ireland have contacted NIE Energy saying they have had a bogus call. The bogus callers have explained in some cases that the customer is entitled to more discount off their electricity costs because of their age bracket. On other calls, they have tried to sell an energy saving device for a one off payment. Some customers have been told that the organisation is ringing on behalf on NIE Energy and on a number of calls customers have been asked for their bank details.

Maureen Delaney from NIE Energy has confirmed that none of the calls were made by anyone in NIE Energy. She said: “We have had a number of reports of bogus callers recently. We’ve been in touch with the PSNI and they have told us that this is part of a wider problem with fraudsters pretending to be from banks, credit card and other companies. Unfortunately, incidents of this sort are happening day and daily. The PSNI advice is to be very careful of people phoning or calling to your home.

“What we would advise is that if any customer is worried that the caller isn’t legitimate, terminate the call. Legitimate companies won’t have a problem with you calling them back. In the case of NIE Energy, you can find our telephone number on the back of bills or direct debit statements and also in the Yellow Pages and Phonebook, as well as online.”

NIE Energy has a range of services available to offer extra protection from bogus callers. With the company’s ‘Password Scheme’ you can give a password to use each time the company calls.

The current PSNI advice is to always guard your personal and banking details and never disclose them to any unauthorised person. If you have received a call of this kind or are concerned by the intent of financial promise, report it to police on the non-emergency telephone 0845 600 8000.

In the case of NIE Energy, contact the Customer Helpline on 08457 455 455 (Local call rate. Mon-Fri 8am-8pm and Sat 9am-1pm).

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