Scams, Fraud, and Imposters

Protect yourself from scams, fraud, and imposters

Don’t fall victim to scams or fraud. The first step to protecting yourself is to recognize suspicious activity. This can take many forms, such as:

  • Someone pretending to be an HPS employee or contractor to gain access to your home
  • A company claiming to be HPS, or associated with us, that solicits your personal information or offers to sell their products and services over the telephone or through the mail
  • Emails, websites or mobile apps that appear to be from HPS and require you to provide personal information
  1. How to Protect Yourself
  2. New and Common Scams
  3. Watch Out for Malware
  4. Employment Scams
  5. Report Fraud or Scams

HPS employees are regularly in neighborhoods for reasons including reading or working on electric and water meters, administering home energy-saving programs and maintaining power lines. However, we occasionally hear reports of people posing as HPS employees. Please remember that all HPS employees carry a photo identification badge. Ask to see it and call us to verify, if you are in doubt.

Also, it’s important to remember that HPS will not:

  • Come into your home without making arrangements ahead of time
  • Solicit personal information over the telephone, unless you initiated the contact
  • Send emails threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing personal information
  • Send employees to your home offering cash refunds on deposits or electric/water charges. We either credit your account or mail a check to your billing address

If you encounter suspicious activity that involves HPS's name or likeness:

  • Ask to see the photo identification badge or work request number from suspicious individuals on your property who claim to be HPS employees
  • Contact Us at 305-224-4800 to verify whether the individuals are truly HPS employees
  • Do not allow anyone into your home if you feel suspicious, unsure or confused as to why they are there
  • Do not provide personal information over the phone unless you called us
  • Ignore any suspicious claims to provide personal information such as bank account numbers, user names and passwords, credit card numbers or Social Security number
  • Delete suspicious emails that require you to act immediately to verify or provide personal information. If you are unsure of a suspicious email, send it to us at customerservicequestions@cityofhomestead.com to verify its authenticity
  • Delete any emails from utilities with whom you’re not a customer
  • Do not respond to suspicious emails. Responding often results in even more spam and scam attempts directed at you
  • Do not trust contact information provided in suspicious emails