Two scams involving fraudsters posing as Enmax employees have emerged in just a week.

The first scam involves individuals going door to door in the Dover area of Calgary, potentially in other areas as well. They pose as representatives of Enmax, and try to gain entry to the home by indicating that they are there to do efficiency checks, or an energy audit.

Doris Kaufmann Woodcock , Enmax Spokesperson, says this scam is very concerning for the company.

"It's important for people to know that these are not individuals from Enmax, nor is that something Enmax does," she says. "We do send employees from house to house to check meters on a regular basis, but apart from that and apart from perhaps some electrical work that is being done by crews in a community, for no reason should anyone be expecting anyone from Enmax that would need to have entry to the house."

The one exception to that is there are some meters that are still located in the home, and even then the homeowner does not necessarily need to have an Enmax employee coming through the door, or if they do it would be prearranged.

The next scam involves recent sketchy calls to small businesses, particularly veterinary clinics and small business involving animals.

The caller will claim the business' account is in arrears, and power will be shut off immediately if a payment is not made via prepaid credit card, or in some cases gift cards.

Woodcock says neither of these are accepted forms of payment at Enmax, a prepaid credit card is hard to trace, and once the number is given out, there is no mechanism to block or reverse the charge.

She says as far as Enmax knows, no one who has been called by the scammers have fallen victim to them.

Hints that you may be speaking to a fraudster:

  • ENMAX does not do surprise disconnections
  • ENMAX does not threaten, yell, swear or intimidate customers to demand immediate payment
  • ENMAX does not take prepaid credit cards, iTunes cards or other unusual forms of payment
  • ENMAX will not stay on the phone with a customer while they drive to pick up a payment card
  • Legitimate ENMAX calls are made from Calgary – poor audio quality can be an indicator that the call did not originate locally
  • Any phone number that customers are asked to call can first be verified by calling the ENMAX Customer Care Centre toll free at 310-2010.