Avista cautions customers of ongoing phone scams

Avista Utilities is cautioning customers to be aware of telephone calls from scammers demanding payments or requesting confidential information.

Scammers claiming to be an Avista representative are calling customers and threatening to disconnect service unless they submit a large payment. Scammers are also instructing customers to purchase prepaid debit and credit cards.

Some scammers have used caller ID spoofing to replicate Avista’s customer service phone number and duplicated the utility company’s automated phone greeting, so when customers return a phone call to the number provided by the scammer, it sounds like a legitimate Avista phone number.

Avista says it will never ask for a customer to purchase prepaid debit cards and customers with past due balances receive an advance disconnection notification with their regular monthly bills. The utility urges customers receiving suspicious phone calls to contact its customer service line (1-800-227-9187) to verify the phone calls’ legitimacy.