Scammers target Asheville restaurants

ASHEVILLE - Scammers running a sophisticated hoax are targeting local restaurants while posing as Duke Energy officials.

Roman’s Deli in downtown Asheville is popular with the business crowd for its sandwiches and salads. It also this week became a mark for scammers.

On Monday morning, shortly before lunch service was to begin, a person posing as a member of Duke Energy's utility staff called owner Roman Braverman about supposed late power bills. Before the day was over, the business owner was out $1,000.

He’s not the only one.

In the past two months, local businesses including Gypsy Queen Cuisine, Liberty House Coffee & Café, and Old School Sub and Deli on Sweeten Creek Road have been targeted, according to incident reports filed with the Asheville Police Department.

A fraud alert on Duke Energy’s website says customers in five states have been targeted by similar scam artists claiming to represent the company through phone, in person and via email.

The alert also says people who don’t speak English as a first language are disproportionately targeted.

Complaints about this particular scam doubled last year, according to Duke.

“And they’re going after businesses when you have hours to make critical decisions to keep your business open or not,” said Braverman.

Suzy Phillips, the Beirut-born owner of Gypsy Queen Cuisine food truck and a brick-and-mortar deli of the same name, fell prey to the same scammer.

Someone posing as a Duke Energy employee called her restaurant and threatened to cut the power in 30 minutes, at peak lunch hours.

"I was pretty vulnerable and on a time constraint," said Phillips. "I was begging and pleading."

The person on the phone explained to Phillips, who has her power bill payments on auto pay, that her credit card was expired.

"It had been compromised, and I'd recently changed it," she explained. “Everything lined up and it made sense. Plus, there was the humiliation of thinking I could not open because my lights were off.”

In Braverman’s case, the scammer said a billing error was the source of the problem, and offered up a phone number for the business owner to rectify the situation. That number was answered by an official-sounding outgoing message, followed by a representative who informed Braverman that a utility team was on its way to disconnect his power. Braverman would have to visit Duke's Charlotte headquarters or purchase a prepaid debit card to keep his power on, the scammer said.

Braverman chose the latter option, then transferred about $1,000 in funds to the person posing as Duke.

“I hung up the phone and had zero suspicion this was a scam,” he said. “Through it all, they stayed very professional and calm on the phone. They’re really good at what they do.”

While losing the money is a hard pill to swallow, Braverman’s business is established enough to take the hit, he said.

Other businesses might not have it so easy.

Phillips’ deli has been open for just eight months. She struggling, as many small-business owners are, she said.

"I was heartbroken," Phillips said. "I had just done an event the day before and had worked in the heat. All my hard work had gone out the window with just one phone call."

Phillips echoed Braverman's assertion that the scam was unusually sophisticated.

"When I called them back, they answered their phones 'Duke Energy', they had the account number, they had it all," she said. "In my most vulnerable moment, they had all the right answers."

Christina Hallingse of the Asheville Police Department said the Duke Energy scamming cases are being investigated.

Meghan Musgrave, who handles communications for Duke Energy, said the company has provided information to law enforcement, published advertisements and public service announcements and partnered with local attorneys general and Better Business Bureaus to spread word about the scams.

"A bill insert has been added in all jurisdictions, explaining that customers with delinquent accounts receive notifications by mail before disconnection, never just a single notification one hour before disconnection," she said in an email.

"Also, we typically see an uptick in scam attempts reported to us around holidays and have seen a slight increase in scam attempts the past month," she said.

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Tips to avoid being scammed:

• If you feel pressured for immediate payment or personal information, hang up the phone and call Duke Energy at the number provided on your utility bill. This will ensure you are speaking to a real Duke Energy representative.
• According to Phillips, the scammer called her back several weeks after her money had been stolen. The name "Greatest Auto" appeared on her caller ID.
• "Anybody that asks for prepaid cards and threatens you, question it immediately," said Phillips. Prepaid debit cards are like cash and the transactions cannot be reversed.