Energy Scammers Plaguing Brooklyn?

We were sent this report courtesy of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. Folks from Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights and Flatbush have confirmed the same thing going on in their hoods.

Several weeks ago we had an early evening door-to-door visit form 3rd party reps from IDT Energy wanting to explain and “help us” save money on our Con Edison and National Grid bills by allowing IDT Energy to be the supplier. They explained that they were already technically the supplier and that by “going direct” we’d shave $20+ dollars off each of our bills each month. The slick presentation by the trio sounded good…too good to be true.

Update: If you want to contact CCGH about the issue, send an email; there’s also an online poll on the topic here.

During the discussion, the main presenter asked to see a copy of our Con Ed bill to specifically point out (and circle, which he did) the charges that would disappear if IDT Energy was selected by us as the alternative provider. What we saw, but did not dawn on us until later, was that one of the “helpers” was copying down all of our Con Ed information. After seeing him do this, we inquired why they need our info? Since we “did not need to sign up today if we wished not to,” they had our info to mail us more information on IDT Energy. We concluded the conversation that we’d goto to IDT Energy’s website for more info, await something in the mail and make our own educated decision at a later date. We did finally receive more info in the mail from IDT Energy. Information that WE HAD ENROLLED WITH IDT ENERGY and our service would be transferred in November. Seems we’re not the only community.

Needless to say a very unhappy me just got off the phone with IDT Energy finding out that I had “signed up” to transfer my Con Ed supplier to IDT Energy. Not only did I not sign anything, the scumbag rep forged my signature. The rep I spoke to was not surprised in the least (troubling) and removed us from their service and filed a complaint against the rep (who’s # I got). While we feel very angry (and slightly gullible), we wanted to find out if others in the area have had the same problem, alert you if these gentlemen visited you and warn folks to not even give these guys the time of day if they hit your area. We remember the sub-contractor working for Midtown Promotions located in the Bronx. We’re doing research on-line and have already come across this scam and that company’s name (I wish we had kept their card!). But, IDT is subcontracting this out, thus they are the end culprit!

Photo by JeffS.