Thieves continue to target CoServ members

CoServ Electric members in Lantana and Flower Mound were the most recent targets of thieves posing as CoServ employees.

In Lantana, a woman called a CoServ member one recent morning and told her that her electricity would be disconnected if she didn’t pay more than $200 within the next half-hour.

The caller claimed to be from CoServ, gave the name “Erica Stephens” and called from the phone number 903-900-2227. The CoServ member told a Customer Service Representative (CSR) that she was halfway to Walgreens to purchase a prepaid credit card, as she was instructed to do, before she contacted CoServ. Luckily, she did, and no payment was made.

In another case, a Flower Mound member found a postcard taped to the door of his residence indicating that his electric bill balance was past due and he needed to pay it to avoid disconnection. Instead of calling the phone number on the card, the member contacted a CoServ CSR, who informed him that his payment was not past due.

In both cases, CoServ members did the right thing: They hung up and contacted CoServ.

These two incidents are the latest in a string of relentless efforts by thieves trying to scam people. The most serious occurred two weeks ago, when $1,000 was stolen from a CoServ member in Highland Village after a phone scammer tricked her into providing her bank debit-card number.

Other utilities in North Texas and throughout the country have reported similar scams, and the public is reminded to not share personal information with unsolicited callers.