Man Posing as PECO Worker Tells Woman to Pay Him Or Lose Power

A man posing as a PECO employee allegedly defrauded a Norristown woman after he claimed that PECO would shut her power off if she did not give him $200; he later called and requested even more.  

On Jan. 3 around 7:50 p.m. Norristown police went to the 800 block of Hamilton Street to investigate a report of fraud. The alleged victim told police that a man, who said that he worked for PECO, told her that they would shut her electricity off because she supposedly had not paid her bill since November, according to a Norristown police report.

The victim told police that the man said that she needed to pay $200 to keep her power running, and that he told her that she needed to buy a MoneyPak, which she did.

The victim told police that the man told her to meet him at a specific property on the 200 block of Wood Street, without specifying east or west, saying that he was working at that location and that she could just hand the MoneyPak to him. He then said that she could just provide the number on the MoneyPak to him instead of bringing the item to him, police say.

Around 5:00 p.m., the victim gave the number to the man. The woman then called PECO, who she said told her that this man was not a PECO employee and that there have been other such incidents in this area, according to the report.

The victim also said that the subject called her later on to request $159.95. The victim’s daughter told police that she had taken over responsibility for the PECO bill in November, and that the funds are withdrawn from her back account. 

She told police that the number that the telephone number that the man had used had been calling them for about two weeks.