At times, SoCalGas employees may request access to residents’ and local businesses property in order to assess, temporarily suspend or start service depending on impact. In order to ensure your safety and the safety of SoCalGas employees, we offer the following tips for your to properly identify employees: 

• Typically, SoCalGas visits a customer’s home in response to a specific service request. If you’re not expecting a visit, call us before allowing anyone into your home.
• On occasion, SoCalGas conducts maintenance and company-generated work that requires employee access to customer properties – such as safety inspections – that could encompass inspections, leak surveys, etc.
• Most authorized SoCalGas employees will drive a company car or truck and be in uniform with our company logo.
• All SoCalGas employees on company business are required to carry a SoCalGas photo ID badge. Always ask to see their badge/identification.
• SoCalGas employees will never ask for payments during home visits.
• To verify the authenticity of anyone claiming to be a representative of SoCalGas, ask for identification or call us at 1-800-427-2200 or 1-800-342-4545 for Spanish-language customer service.

In the past, some scammers/imposters have tried to pass themselves off as utility workers to access customers’ homes and valuables or to threaten utility shutoffs unless payment is immediately given. Some of these imposters will even wear hard hats or reflective vests to try and appear authentic. Others have tried to scam customers by creating realistic-looking websites that mimic SoCalGas’ bill payment webpage.

Online search engine scams can occur when a customer uses a search engine, like Google, to find the website or phone number for a utility, like SoCalGas. An unofficial SoCalGas website or an unofficial SoCalGas partner could show up at the top of search results, which may be another company misrepresenting itself. 

These fake websites may take a “payment” or provide a phone number for a customer to pay by phone. Over the phone, a customer could be requested to provide billing, personal information, and a credit card to make a “payment.” This money is not sent to SoCalGas, but instead goes to the scammer. Here are tips to protect yourself from search engine scams:

• Find the official ways to pay your bill on our Ways to Pay webpage or a printed bill.
• Save our contact information in your cell phone or near your phone.
• Remember, we will never ask for credit card or banking information over the phone.

To learn more about how to protect yourself against scammers, visit socalgas.com/ScamAlert.