Scammers have increased calls, texts, emails and in-person tactics to defraud customers. A new tactic has been reported by some Evergy customers. Scammers are utilizing paid or sponsored search capabilities to have their fraudulent phone number displayed when searching for “Evergy” online.

Evergy offers these safety tips for customers:

• Verify the person you’re engaging with is Evergy by asking to see company identification or by calling the contact center before giving credit card, debit card, Social Security, ATM, checking or savings account numbers to anyone who comes to your home, calls, texts and/or sends an email requesting this information about your utility bill. If you can’t verify you’re speaking with an Evergy employee, do not give them this information.
• Be suspicious if you receive an email or text regarding your utility bill if you have not requested online communications from Evergy.
• For customers using Evergy’s online bill pay system, always make online payments directly through www.evergy.com.
• Never provide personal information via email or click any suspicious links.
• Employees will carry Evergy employee identification. For a service appointment, they may be driving an Evergy vehicle or wearing Evergy-branded clothing. Evergy does not perform door-to-door sales and employees rarely need to enter a customer’s home.
• Evergy Missouri West, Evergy Missouri Metro and Evergy Kansas Metro customers may reach customer service toll-free at 1-888-471-5275. Evergy Kansas Central customers may call 1-800-383-1183. Customers can also review their account status online by visiting www.evergy.com.

Signs of a potential scam include:

• Threat to disconnect – Scammers may aggressively tell customers their utility bill is past due and service will be disconnected, usually within an hour, if a payment is not made. For past-due accounts, calls from Evergy requesting payment are never made the same day as the disconnection.
• Request for immediate payment – Scammers may instruct customers to buy a prepaid card, then call them back supposedly to make a bill payment. When the customer calls back, the caller asks the customer for the prepaid card’s number, which grants the scammer instant access to the card’s funds and the victim’s money is gone. Scammers may also instruct customers to send payment over a money app. Evergy will never ask a customer to purchase a pre-paid debit card or use a money app to pay for service.

Evergy recently launched an enhanced online collection scam reporting form to help stop scams. The form allows customers to conveniently report scam attempts at www.evergy.com/reportscam. Customers will need to provide their account number or primary phone number to complete the form. The form also requires the scammers’ callback number, not the number that appears on their caller ID. Evergy can then work with phone carriers to shut down the fake callback number.

If you feel you have been a victim of a scam, please work with your local law enforcement agency to report the crime. Those who are not customers and were contacted by someone claiming to be Evergy can report the scam by calling our customer service center.