Danielle Flora says “It is a very scary thing because the people that do it are so good at it they make it so believable it’s easy to get scammed.”

Danielle Flora owns and operates Pizza Gallery in Terre Haute and Clay City. On Tuesday her son answered a phone call believed to be from Duke Energy.

The scam told the business they needed to pay their electric bill within the next thirty minutes or, power would be shut off. Her son took down the message, and when Danielle received it, she realized something was fishy.

Danielle Flora says “They asked for my account number and i told them well you should already have it if you really are duke, and then they just hung up on me.”

Typically scammers attack private numbers, but this rip-off is targeting businesses. Rick Burger from Duke Energy says the utility will never contact businesses or homeowners by phone to pay a bill.

Rick Burger says “I would encourage people that duke energy does not call you up and ask you to pay in thirty minutes, we don’t ask you to wire money, what i would encourage people when you get a call like that call our 1-800 number and let us know because when you get a call like that it’s 100 percent of the time likely to be a scammer.”

And the more quickly you become aware of the situation, the less likely you are to make a costly mistake.

Danielle Flora says “You have to be on guard, and be aware, maybe Google their number and not just call back the number they give you.”

If for some reason you would be in a situation in which you might be late on a bill, being proactive can help you avoid scammers taking advantage of you as well.

Rick Burger says “If you see you’re gonna get caught in trouble on a bill maybe, call us, work with us. We can work out payment plans with you.”