Below is an Alert that came out from Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office regarding suspicious activities by individuals representing themselves as representatives of Excel Energy. You should never provide any personal or sensitive information to callers over the telephone unless you have independently verified the caller; this includes: credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security Numbers, passwords, PIN numbers or driver's license numbers. If you have not already do so, you should register your telephone numbers on the Colorado No Call List by calling 1-800-309-7041 or through the Internet at www.coloradonocall.com and with the National Do Not Call Registry by calling 1-888-382-1222 or through the Internet at www.donotcall.gov. The District Attorney's Consumer Protection line provides assistance to victims of crime and answers questions on white collar crime issues. If you have a question or need assistance, call 720-874-8547. John Skoglund Director of Consumer Protection 18th Judicial District Office of the District Attorney 6450 S Revere Pkwy Centennial, CO 80111 Citizen Notification Advisory Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office BULLETIN DENVER - Xcel Energy wishes to alert its customers to an illegal customer contact effort that may target senior citizens in Colorado, particularly in the Denver Metro area. As part of the scam, a phony customer service agent may contact an Xcel Energy customer to explain that his or her monthly electricity payment has been received but the check was not signed. Customers are then asked for a credit card number to pay the bill. Investigators have not determined how many customers have been contacted by the bogus company but speculate that seniors may be a primary target because of their propensity to make payments by check. In rare cases when Xcel Energy needs to contact a customer concerning his or her account, customer service agents will take several steps in order to verify to the satisfaction of both the customer and the company that everyone is who they claim to be. Xcel Energy urges its customers to simply hang up if they are called under the false pretense of unsigned checks requiring credit card numbers. If any customers have been victimized by this scam, they should contact their credit card company immediately as well as their local police department.   Xcel Energy's security team constantly works with its customer service department to detect and stop such illegal activity and is currently working with law enforcement agents in the state from which these calls may have originated to put an end to this activity. If customers have any questions or concerns regarding the company's bill payment policy, they can contact us at 1-800-895-4999.   Attached is the latest CONSUMER ALERT just released by District Attorney Carol Chambers.  Your assistance in sharing this with everyone you know will be greatly appreciated and will help us to reduce the number of victims that may need our assistance in the future.   CONSUMER ALERT   May 16, 2011  From District Attorney Carol Chambers   Pay Day Loan Collection Scam The District Attorney's Office has received numerous calls from consumers who have received threatening phone calls from perpetrators who claim to be trying to collect on an unpaid "pay day" loan.  The callers are pretending to be law enforcement agents or attorneys who threaten the victims with immediate arrest if they do not make payment on a loan they took, but did not repay.  The majority of targets have never taken a pay day loan, so are immediately suspicious of the calls.  The callers, however, continue to call, becoming more aggressive and threatening with each new call. Several callers have reported feeling very threatened and anxious after receiving these calls. The District Attorney advises that these callers are believed to be outside of the United States and pose no imminent threat to Colorado residents.  Any request to immediately wire funds to the caller, or to provide a credit card number for payment should be ignored.  If you have ever received a pay day loan and want to insure that there is not a collection in process, contact the pay day loan outlet where you arranged the loan.  Do not seek information from the person who is threatening you.  And if the calls continue, just hang up.  Do not engage the caller in any future conversations.  Eventually the calls will stop when the caller realizes you are not going to fall for his/her scam.  If you have questions or need help with one of these scams, contact your local law enforcement agency.    Need help? Call the Consumer Protection Line 720-874-8547

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