LUMA strives to prevent customers from falling into the “fish” of telephone fraud

Given the increase in fraud cases that have used the pretext of debt with a service, the LUMA Energy consortium on Friday will launch a security campaign as they seek their customers not to fall for the “fish” of phone fraud.

The purpose of the “Anti-Fraud” initiative is to create public awareness about the scams and fraud attempts that have been created in the past months with energy conglomerate consumers and to provide reliable tools to prevent this type of incident. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in 2022, there were 3,351 reported cases of fraud in Puerto Rico.

The announcement of the campaign comes on days when the police media office reported that a phone fraud scheme was under investigation after a Trujillo resident paid $1,000 for an ATH Móvil to a barbershop account after receiving a call from an alleged debt with the company.

“There are many clients who have been scammed, but they don’t contact LUMA and they don’t tell us about the situation. Because of individual cases, or because of some calls, or even because of events reported in the press, we know people who become victims of this type of crime, and that’s why we are excited To emphasize this type of campaign, advising clients to protect your financial information, said Nurit Figueroa, director of the LUMA Customer Voice office in Primera Hora.

Among the resources available, the company responsible for Puerto Rico’s electricity transmission and distribution system has incorporated a resource on its website where it will provide advice on how customers can protect themselves so that they do not fall for these criminal activities. In addition, the communication effort will have a multifaceted campaign on official social networks to introduce security measures.

For example, Figueroa has insisted that LUMA will never ask customers for personal or financial information over the phone. In addition, the consortium will not require its customers to pay through ATH Móvil, PayPal, Venmo, prepaid debit cards, or gift cards.

In ATH Móvil’s own case, the official confirmed it was “a payment method that LUMA is not using at the moment,” so it could be a key to deciphering the code if the interaction could be fraudulent.

Similarly, LUMA will have an option on the website (lumapr.com/combatiendoelfraude), which will provide resources and advice for “attacking” fraud calls and instructions for reporting fraud attempts, to both the police and the union’s customer service office.