Central Hudson warns its customers of a nationwide utility billing scam to commit identity theft and/or steal utility payments. “A previous announcement reported that incidents are taking place in other parts of the country, however we now see that Central Hudson’s customers are also being solicited,” said Charles A. Freni, Senior Vice President of Customer Services. Perpetrators tell residents of a utility bill assistance program authorized by President Obama and funded through the Federal Reserve Bank, however there is no such funding.

Scammers ask customers for personal information, such as social security identification numbers, to qualify for the assistance, and then provide victims with a bank routing number with which to pay their bills. The routing number is fraudulent, and the payments will not be applied to your Central Hudson bills. There is also an extreme risk of identity theft involved with this scam.

“Central Hudson has notified law enforcement officials of this scam, and we urge our customers to report these attempts as well if you have been victimized or contacted,” said Freni.

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