Power NI issues a new warning on bogus callers

Recently, a householder in the Banbridge area contacted Power NI to say she had received a bogus caller to her home. The female caller told the householder that she wanted to come in and check the meter. She claimed to be from ‘NIE Energy’ which raised an alarm with the householder immediately as she was aware of the name change in July 2011 to Power NI.

Maureen Delaney from Power NI 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 other companies. Unfortunately, incidents of this sort are happening here 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 conversation. Legitimate companies won’t have a problem with you doing so. In the case of Power NI, 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.”

Power NI 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 not to let anyone into your home until you are satisfied as to who they are. Always get proof of the person’s identity – a genuine caller will only be too happy to provide this information. If you have received a call of this kind, report it to police on the non-emergency telephone 0845 600 8000.

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