It was a scam

[Tropicalevo]

Had an interesting one the other day.

Phone call from the PEA saying that they would be coming to change my electricity meter tomorrow at 11:00.

A bit of telephone 'ping pong' trying to get more details.

Asked the guy for his name and his manager's name and why change the meter?

(I have solar panels and turn the meter back during daylight.)

 

Guy said that he did not know why, but they would be changing 15 meters at the complex.

(That is about the number of houses that also have solar panels turning back the meters.)

Then the killer question.

 

"But why is the PEA doing this. We do not get our electricity from the PEA and they are not PEA meters?"

Our electricity is provided by the property developer - who also did not know what was going on. We checked.

Did not hear back from the 'PEA'.

No one changed the electricity meter.

 

At one point, we were put on hold. My business partner said that the music was a Burmese song.

My concern is - where did they get the private phone number and the house owner's name from.

 

No idea where the scam would have happened because we stopped it at the beginning, but I am sure that we would have been asked to download a 'PEA' link at some point.

[steven100]

i'm a bit confused,  was it actually a PEA employee trying to scam you ....   why the Burmese song when on hold ?   that is suspicious to me....    maybe not PEA at all .. 

 

did the caller even give you his full name ....  and his office telephone number ?   then you could check if it is in fact PEA.

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

5 minutes ago, steven100 said:

i'm a bit confused,  was it actually a PEA employee trying to scam you ....   why the Burmese song when on hold ?   that is suspicious to me....    maybe not PEA at all .. 

 

did the caller even give you his full name ....  and his office telephone number ?   then you could check if it is in fact PEA.

 

 

 

No - it was not the PEA.

We asked for more information etc.

The developer called the PEA. (I could not as I do not have an account with them.)

It seems to have been from a scam centre in Burma, hence the music. But is was a native Thai speaker.

The phone number does not exist any more.

[lom]

1 hour ago, Tropicalevo said:

 

"But why is the PEA doing this. We do not get our electricity from the PEA and they are not PEA meters?"

Our electricity is provided by the property developer - who also did not know what was going on.

So where is the property developer getting the electricity from?

 

1 hour ago, Tropicalevo said:

Guy said that he did not know why, but they would be changing 15 meters at the complex.

(That is about the number of houses that also have solar panels turning back the meters.)

 

So if 15 houses are back-feeding electricity then where does that electricity ends up? Who is using it?

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, lom said:

So where is the property developer getting the electricity from?

 

 

So if 15 houses are back-feeding electricity then where does that electricity ends up? Who is using it?

The PEA of course.

They are the customer, not me.

I guess that the developer gets the credit for the 'rebated' electricity and sells on to another villa.

 

But know you have me thinking???

Edited October 18 by Tropicalevo

[impulse]

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out the goal of their dastardly plan.

 

[Celsius]

There are a lot of these scam calls. My wife gets 1 per day on average. Unless she recognizes the number she never picks up.

 

This is Thailand. Do you feel secure when you hand out your passport, bank account, house number, wife id card, kor ror to immigration on the back of a copy paper? 

[tandor]

9 hours ago, Celsius said:

There are a lot of these scam calls. My wife gets 1 per day on average. Unless she recognizes the number she never picks up.

 

This is Thailand. Do you feel secure when you hand out your passport, bank account, house number, wife id card, kor ror to immigration on the back of a copy paper? 

always put a line through the photocopy, sign it and the reason it is being used for.

[Spamhead]

9 hours ago, Celsius said:

There are a lot of these scam calls. My wife gets 1 per day on average. Unless she recognizes the number she never picks up.

 

This is Thailand. Do you feel secure when you hand out your passport, bank account, house number, wife id card, kor ror to immigration on the back of a copy paper? 

So your wife gets at least one scam call from people she knows each day ?  Weird or what 

[steven100]

12 hours ago, impulse said:

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out the goal of their dastardly plan.

 

 

next may have been a link of some sort to a fake PEA form to complete bank details or next was a request for a deposit ....   that's all I can think of .... 

[Andre0720]

13 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

The PEA of course.

They are the customer, not me.

I guess that the developer gets the credit for the 'rebated' electricity and sells on to another villa.

 

But know you have me thinking???

This is a common practice, a property owner of a number of housing units gets the electricity from the PEA, but only to his main meter. The owner subsequently gets all his housing units wired to secondary meters, from his own master meter.

So the owner gets to control all these secondary meters, and bills the property renters for their electricity usage, but at an inflated price of typically 2 bahts per kWh.

 

Not legal, but just the way it is here....

[Thingamabob]

12 hours ago, Celsius said:

There are a lot of these scam calls. My wife gets 1 per day on average. Unless she recognizes the number she never picks up.

 

This is Thailand. Do you feel secure when you hand out your passport, bank account, house number, wife id card, kor ror to immigration on the back of a copy paper? 

My wife likewise, and me also. I recently, foolishly, gave the number of a bank card to a very legitimate-sounding caller, only to wake up and realize I was being scammed. Of course I immediately cancelled the card. Scammers are becoming highly sophisticated and clever. Caution needed at all times.

[newbee2022]

🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱

[Celsius]

3 hours ago, Spamhead said:

So your wife gets at least one scam call from people she knows each day ?  Weird or what 

 

What?

[john donson]

19 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Had an interesting one the other day.

Phone call from the PEA saying that they would be coming to change my electricity meter tomorrow at 11:00.

A bit of telephone 'ping pong' trying to get more details.

Asked the guy for his name and his manager's name and why change the meter?

(I have solar panels and turn the meter back during daylight.)

 

Guy said that he did not know why, but they would be changing 15 meters at the complex.

(That is about the number of houses that also have solar panels turning back the meters.)

Then the killer question.

 

"But why is the PEA doing this. We do not get our electricity from the PEA and they are not PEA meters?"

Our electricity is provided by the property developer - who also did not know what was going on. We checked.

Did not hear back from the 'PEA'.

No one changed the electricity meter.

 

At one point, we were put on hold. My business partner said that the music was a Burmese song.

My concern is - where did they get the private phone number and the house owner's name from.

 

No idea where the scam would have happened because we stopped it at the beginning, but I am sure that we would have been asked to download a 'PEA' link at some point.

 

where to scammers get phone numbers from customers with 'something' in the bank, for example?

[richard_smith237]

26 minutes ago, john donson said:

 

where to scammers get phone numbers from customers with 'something' in the bank, for example?

I have a good idea.

 

We have a True internet-TV package with free mobile….…. The package is in my wife’s name.

 

Everywhere else I registered my number it’s in my name (various apps etc.)….. 

 

… but I still get cold calls asking for my Wife - it’s obvious to me that True (or an employee acting illegally) has sold the information. 

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

13 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I have a good idea.

 

We have a True internet-TV package with free mobile….…. The package is in my wife’s name.

 

Everywhere else I registered my number it’s in my name (various apps etc.)….. 

 

… but I still get cold calls asking for my Wife - it’s obvious to me that True (or an employee acting illegally) has sold the information. 

 

 

 

This scam probably started in the government land office or similar.

The caller knew the address, name and telephone number of the house/land owner.

Edited October 19 by Tropicalevo

[Satcommlee]

Maybe not in your case, but posting bills on Facebook and not covering the q-code can reveal all personal information which can be easily retrieved. (I won't say how exactly)

 

Many people post summer bills when they are high.

[Confuscious]

Had a few month's ago a call from a "fake" PEA employee who said that I was entitled to a payback of several thousand baht because there was a reduction of the consumtion fee by the Government.
If I wanted to apply for the payback i needed to scan the QR-code he would send me and fill in the documents I would receive.
Did not scan anything but went the next day to the PEA office.
It was a scam they said.
Deleted the whole chat with the QR-code and never heard again of it.
 

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, Confuscious said:

Had a few month's ago a call from a "fake" PEA employee who said that I was entitled to a payback of several thousand baht because there was a reduction of the consumtion fee by the Government.
If I wanted to apply for the payback i needed to scan the QR-code he would send me and fill in the documents I would receive.
Did not scan anything but went the next day to the PEA office.
It was a scam they said.
Deleted the whole chat with the QR-code and never heard again of it.

 

I'm assuming PEA are doing there best to notify their customers when they give them their monthly bill, e.g. it is written on the bill, not to fall for such scams, yeh right 🤔

[arick]

Krung Thai bank insurance probably emailed them a list of everybody's accounts and telephone numbers and names and addresses out in an email. 

And if you don't know what I'm talking about that's exactly what email I received from this bank insurance a few years back.

[recom273]

On 10/18/2024 at 3:13 PM, Tropicalevo said:

 

No - it was not the PEA.

We asked for more information etc.

The developer called the PEA. (I could not as I do not have an account with them.)

It seems to have been from a scam centre in Burma, hence the music. But is was a native Thai speaker.

The phone number does not exist any more.

They are trafficking in Thais to all these call

centers in Myanmar and Cambodia.

 

However careful, we have nearly been caught twice. One by pretending to be 

customs, that was weird, the other was someone pretending to be the land office - when we got passed to a “closer” and they were wanting to add different line accounts, that’s when we knew.

 

 

[digbeth]

4 hours ago, recom273 said:

They are trafficking in Thais to all these call

centers in Myanmar and Cambodia.

 

However careful, we have nearly been caught twice. One by pretending to be 

customs, that was weird, the other was someone pretending to be the land office - when we got passed to a “closer” and they were wanting to add different line accounts, that’s when we knew.

 

 

they are even trafficking in foreigners from indians to vietnamese to work on their computers and program the online gambling site, often it'll be job in Bangkok with no talk of work permit, then they got shipped to border and disappeared, passport taken 

[BTB1977]

My friend put in solar on his house.  After enjoying the benefits for 2 years.  PEA came out and installed a digital meter ending the reversed meter benefits.  

[mogandave]

Maybe the developer wants to change your meter such that they can sell your power during the day, and charge you full freight. 

[adv008]

I recently had a call from  woman claiming to be from PEA. She said they would be coming to fit a smart meter. She wanted me to download her LINE app. I said I would go to the local office here in Chiang rai.  She put the phone down. I did go go to the PEA office and played the recording of the phone call to the staff. They laughed and said yes a scam. No smart meters here.

[lom]

10 hours ago, BTB1977 said:

My friend put in solar on his house.  After enjoying the benefits for 2 years.  PEA came out and installed a digital meter ending the reversed meter benefits.

Mechanical meters are being phased out all over Thailand, consumers with solar are their first priority but eventually all consumers will have their meters replaced.

We got our meter replaced one year after our solar installation and the same has happened to others who I know, PEA will change the meter as soon as they find out that you have solar.

They did not tell us about the meter change beforehand and we didn't notice the change until after a few days.

[KannikaP]

On 10/18/2024 at 4:09 PM, lom said:

So where is the property developer getting the electricity from?

 

 

So if 15 houses are back-feeding electricity then where does that electricity ends up? Who is using it?

You cannot specify from where your electricity is coming from, it's all mixed up on the National Grid, oil, gas, nuclear, wind and solar from other users.

[Old Curmudgeon]

On 10/18/2024 at 2:47 PM, Tropicalevo said:

Had an interesting one the other day ...

No idea where the scam would have happened because we stopped it at the beginning

 

Valuable post, @Tropicalevo.

Thank you for taking your time to write and post here.

 

I wish this forum would open a new section specifically for scams and attempted scams that could affect expats.