Santa Maria Company Defies Phone Scammer

The latest phone scam involves the fraudulent representation of a local agency we all rely on, the power company.

Vapor shops like Blue Sky Vapes on East Main Street in Santa Maria are becoming more popular as more smokers make the switch to E-cigarettes.

“I got a phone call this morning telling me I needed to pay $745 or my electricity was going to be shut off”, says Blue Sky Vapes owner Kristina Compston, “he said the truck was on its way to the store to shut off the power.”

Compston says she began to suspect something was wrong when the caller demanding money for PG&E said she should go to the nearest 7-11 convenience store and pay the alleged amount owed.

“I was trying to verify the account they were calling about because I don’t have PG&E here at this location, I do not pay PG&E for this location,”, Compston says, “I have PG&E at our San Luis Obispo store, so I was thinking maybe they are calling about San Luis, but I had just paid that bill on Monday and I knew there was no way the bill was $745.”

Compston says she eventually hung up on the scammer.

“I called PG&E and they told me this is a scam that has been going on for awhile now”, Compston says, “she said she hasn’t heard of it much in the Santa Maria area, and that its kind of newer to the Central Coast, a little bit in San Luis Obispo but not so much here.”

“It worries me that it is spreading”, Compston says, “people can scam you for anything, I mean I had no idea someone would call pretending to be a utility company.”

Compston says PG&E told her whenever the company calls a customer it will be done via a computer-generated message with a phone number for the customer to call back to confirm a secure connection.