Homeowners all over the state have been receiving scam phone calls that are claiming to be from NorthWestern Energy.

NorthWestern Energy Media Contact Butch Larcomb explains how the scam works.

“These scams involve people calling up and saying that the customer needs to pay their bill immediately or face having their power shut off,” Larcomb said. “They will try to create a crisis mentality among the customer and that’s certainly not going to be our approach.”

Larcomb says that if there is a payment problem, the issue will be handled with a lot less urgency.

“We’re going to be in contact with them probably something in writing saying ‘Hey, you’re behind on your bill and we need you to make arrangements to make payment,'” Larcomb said. “We’ll probably have and a string of communication rather than a desperate phone call. It’s not going to be a threat that if you don’t pay us by noon we’re going to shut your power off.”

According to Larcomb, calls like this seem to appear in regional pockets, and will use the names of various utilities to carry out the scheme. Although the calls are reported to authorities, they have rarely ended with an arrest.

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