You. Filthy. Bastards.

[reynardo]

We've been in our current house about 3 years. We get our electricity from AGL (and a pretty nice refund for the solar) and the background supplier is Jemena.

So when this letter arrived today, addressed to "The Occupant, [Home Address Redacted]", I was a little thrown.

Then as angry as hell.

Wanna read a scam?
------------------------------------
Welcome to Simply Energy. We wish to inform you that Simply Energy currently supplies electricity and/or gas for [Home Address Redacted].

However we have become aware that the customer we have been supplying at this address may have moved away. We would therefore like you, as the current occupier, to contact us immediately on 1800 009 146 and confirm your name and contact details so that we may:

* Verify that you, as an existing customer of Simply Energy, still live at this address; or

* Talk to you, as a new occupier of these premises, about setting up an account with Simply Energy.

If you do not contact us by 27-01-2014 then we may disconnect these premises without further notice.

Yours sincerely,

etc. etc. etc.

--------------------------------------

We wish to inform you that Simply Energy currently supplies electricity and/or gas for [Home Address Redacted] NO THEY SMEGGING WELL DON'T!

It's a scare tactic. Ring them, give lots of your private details, and they'll swap you over anyway without your permission.

I've reported them to the Victorian Consumer Affairs department. And tomorrow? I'll ring them. And oh boy will I be giving them a piece of my mind.

Politely, of course.

Anyone else in Melbourne been hit by this?

Comments

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

My mum and I both got a text from "Verizon" the other day claiming we had to visit this site or our phones would be deactivated. I took the opportunity to show her how that scam worked (how to tell the fake url) and if she ever gets anything like that, call the existing number she has for a place or go to their regular site, to verify such things. Stupid scammers. Hate them. Sympathies at having to deal with it.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

Aargh.

I had the odd cold caller at my old place, asking for personal details. Always asked them to do it in writing. I got a flurry cold callers at the door when I moved in here, claiming much the same. Very quick to leave when I politely challenged their legitimacy and that they should do this in writing.

But yours have! Aiie.

[delphipsmith]

Sneaky/cheeky bastards. Give 'em hell!

[darklotus1211.livejournal.com]

There's another mob called Shore Telecom who do cold calling on the phone that try a similar, but much more despicable and misleading scam aimed at seniors. They ring and say that they now have taken over billing for your telecom service (of course, not true), say they can offer you a new telecom package for seniors and they just have to verify your details.

To make matters worse, the package they offer initially covers all calls to any phone, landline or mobile in Australia, then as they continue on, that gets whittled away until they only offer a landline with no included calls for more than most other telecoms charge.

They've been trying it on several people in my area, one of which was only in their thirties and was quite put out by being referred to as a senior.

Quite a few of the people targetted have reported it, but it's difficult to get any action taken against them. There seems to be a real lack of policing at the moment in Oz regarding shifty tactics like this. I don't know if they have the laws in place and they're just slack, or loopholes need to be closed, but either way, it's pretty bad.