Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador warned on Oct. 15 that almost 400 Idaho Power customer accounts have experienced fraud, with impostors posing as the utility, threatening to shut off power and demanding deposits and fees. His office is working with the utility’s own investigators to trace the callers.
The attorney general’s consumer alert says the fraud covers unauthorized service requests, fraudulent payments, customer impersonation and unauthorized changes to accounts. Some customers paid deposits and fees after being told their electricity would be cut.
How the calls, texts and emails are set up
Scammers reach customers by phone, email or text, often with a story about a planned outage. They supply a fake Idaho Power phone number, and anyone who calls it is asked for personal details. The alert says those details are then used to alter the customer’s real account.
Labrador said the callers use out-of-state numbers with area codes 224, which is Chicago, 470, which is Atlanta, and 725, which is Las Vegas. Labrador said his office suspects the scammers “originate overseas” and use spoofed phone numbers, so the number on a screen proves nothing.
The alert also describes a fake website, energexespower.com, that advertised low monthly power rates to collect personal and financial information and then disappeared. A customer who entered a Social Security number or bank details there has handed over the same material a caller would ask for.
Anyone with an Idaho Power account, and relatives who help older family members with their bills, is the target of this wave. A call, text or email that mentions an outage, an unpaid balance or a required deposit is the moment to stop. The next step is to hang up and use a number already on file, not one the message supplies.
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The attorney general’s advice is blunt. If a call seems suspicious, even when caller ID shows “Idaho Power” or “IPCO,” customers should hang up, because caller ID can be spoofed. They should then phone Idaho Power Customer Care directly at 208-388-2323 in the Treasure Valley or 800-488-6151 toll-free.
Balances, billing and activity can also be checked through the utility’s online customer account or its official app, the alert says. Doing that takes the caller out of the picture, because the real account either shows a past-due balance or it does not.
What Idaho Power says it will never do
The alert lists four things the utility does not do. It does not demand immediate or same-day payment by phone or in person under threat of instant disconnection. It does not require out-of-pocket fees or immediate deposits for meter repair or replacement.
It also does not sell solar panels door to door or send third-party contractors to do so. And it does not accept prepaid debit cards, cryptocurrency, money transfer apps or QR codes as payment. Any request that uses one of those methods is, by the utility’s own account, not from Idaho Power.
For visits in person, the alert says legitimate field employees arrive in a branded company vehicle, wear company clothing and carry an official ID badge. Customers are told to ask to see the physical badge before letting anyone in or discussing account details.
The statement names that give it away
People who think they may have paid a stranger should look at their bank and card statements. The attorney general says charges tied to this scheme may appear under the names “Stallion” or “PayEnergy,” names that mean nothing to a customer expecting a utility payment.
Anyone who finds one of those charges, or who sent money to a caller, can report it to the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division through the state’s Report Scams Idaho page. The office also lists a general line, 208-334-2400, on its main site.
An old pattern with a bigger footprint
Utility shutoff scams in Idaho are not new. In 2019, an Idaho Power spokesman, Jordan Rodriguez, told the Better Business Bureau that the utility never demands immediate payment over the phone. A woman in that report lost $897 after a message said her power would go off in 30 minutes and a caller told her to buy prepaid cards.
Spoofing made it harder to spot. A Boise report from the Better Business Bureau described an Ada County man whose caller ID showed Idaho Power’s real number while the caller claimed a technician was on the way to shut off his service. He caught it only because he knew his bills were paid.
The advice from the utility has stayed the same through the years. Idaho Power has told customers it will not request payment from a prepaid card and that payment arrangements go through the customer portal or its care team.
Federal consumer guidance describes the same script. The Federal Trade Commission has said a caller who threatens to shut off utilities and pushes for fast payment might be an imposter running a utility scam. The FTC’s own warning is that once money is wired or loaded onto a prepaid card, it is gone for good.
That is why the method of payment matters as much as the threat. Scammers favor routes that are fast and hard to trace, and the Idaho alert names the same ones: prepaid cards, crypto, money transfer apps and QR codes. A real utility bill is paid through channels that leave a record the customer controls.
The counts in the Idaho alert reflect accounts, not dollars, and the attorney general did not publish a total loss. What the alert does show is a pattern with three parts: a spoofed number, a deadline measured in hours, and a payment method no utility accepts.
For a household on a fixed income, a deposit or fee demanded under a shutoff threat can be a large share of a month’s budget. The safest habit is also the simplest. Hang up, call the number printed on the bill, and ask Customer Care what the account shows.
Would a fake shutoff call get past a household?
The hard part comes after a payment has gone out to a caller who sounded like the utility. The first hour decides how much can be traced, and most households have no notes on what was said, which number called, or which card was used.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit lays out the first-hour recovery plan step by step, with a fraud evidence and report log for keeping the call details, the charge names and each report number in one place. It gives a family something to follow while the stress is high.
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Steps to Stop the Scams That Took $7.7 Billion From Seniors
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
