English
Arabic
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Korean
Thai
MURRIETA, CA — An Murrieta husband and wife were recent targets of telephone scammers posing as Southern California Edison employees, and according to the utility the local couple’s experience is pretty common.
The rate of phone scams reported to SCE each month is more than 30 percent higher this year (about 1,700) compared to the same period last year (about 1,300). In 2021, SCE customers have reported being scammed out of more than $264,000, with about 34 percent (about $88,000) lost using mobile payment apps like Zelle, MoneyPak and others that let users send cash immediately.
“Anytime someone says, ‘You need to pay right now,’ that’s a tipoff,” said Darryl Turner of Murrieta. He and his wife Lynette said they get “several various scam calls each week.”
“That happens when you get up in years,” Darryl said. The Turners are both over 70.
A few weeks after actual SCE technicians upgraded their meter, a scammer called the Turners claiming to be from…
