Insights

November 14 is National Utility Scam Awareness Day

Nov 14, 2018

Team Somos is excited to join Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS), an association of more than 120 utility member companies, in celebrating National Utility Scam Awareness Day this Wednesday, November 14. The goal of the day is to help drive awareness around tactics scammers use to steal money from utility customers and to educate customers on how to protect themselves.

Since forming in 2016, UUAS has worked diligently to educate the public about what some common scams look like and what you should do if you are contacted by a scammer. This year, Somos was proud to award UUAS the Toll-Free Industry’s Fraud Fighter Award. This award was given in recognition of UUAS’ previous advocacy and awareness campaign to stop scams that target electric, water and natural gas company customers. To date, UUAS and its member companies have helped to shut down over 2,400 Toll-Free Numbers used by scammers against utility customers.

Scammers often spoof the Caller ID of a legitimate business in order to scam consumers. Because of this, Somos supports the FCC’s recent call to the industry to adopt anti-spoofing protocols to help consumers combat scam robocalls. Just like utility providers are collaborating to combat fraudulent behavior, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is asking voice carriers to work together to build a robust call authentication framework. According to Chairman Pai:

We need call authentication to become a reality—it’s the best way to ensure that consumers can answer their phones with confidence. By this time next year, I expect that consumers will begin to see this on their phones… Greater participation will ensure the system works for consumers, who expect real progress in combatting malicious spoofing and scam robocalls.

Eliminating Caller ID spoofing will not only help prevent scammers from posing as real companies, but it will also help slow the onslaught of robocalls and help make it easier to shut down Toll-Free traffic pumping.

Somos is pleased to have the opportunity to continue to work with UUAS, the FCC and more to protect the integrity of Toll-Free. We look forward to continuing to empower the Toll-Free industry by providing thought leadership for continued discussions around keeping Toll-Free a safe, trustworthy, and dependable way for businesses and organizations to connect to their customers. To learn more about National Utility Scam Awareness Day and how it is contributing to the fight against Toll-Free fraud, check out UUAS’ official event press release: UUAS Awareness Campaign