Phone scammers posing as energy company staff are targeting Christchurch residents.

Meridian Energy and Genesis Energy have reported scammers have been targeting Christchurch-based customers in a scam to get them to hand over their credit card details.

The callers claim to offer a Red Cross assistance payment towards the customer’s power bill, as part of a scheme to help people with high-use electricity accounts.

The customer is then transferred to a second person claiming to be a ‘supervisor’ who asks for their credit card details to process the payment.

Both companies and the Red Cross have confirmed that no such scheme is currently operating, and that their staff would not call people and ask for their personal information over the phone.

Our Advice

Never hand over your credit card or bank account details to anyone who contacts you over the phone, or via email, no matter who they say they are from.

If anyone calls you and asks you to do this, say you will call them back. Then hang up, find the companies contact number from your own records, and dial their call centre to find out if the request is genuine.

• Meridian customers can call 0800 496 496 (Meridian Energy Centre) or 0800 496 600 (Meridian Payments team)
• Genesis customers can call 0800 300 400 (Residential Customer Care team) or 0800 600 950 (Rural team)

We expect this scam will spread to other energy companies and other areas, so be on your guard.

Check out the latest scams at www.scamwatch.govt.nz and be sure to report suspicious calls to your local police.

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