Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Judge throws 'book' at scammer posing as We Energies

A crook who took part in a scam that cost one of our customers thousands of dollars will spend three years behind bars. 

A Waukesha County judge handed down the maximum sentence to Samuel Petit-Frere. The Florida man was convicted for his role in an elaborate phone scam with roots more than a thousand miles away. In this case, the owner of an Elm Grove car wash was conned into purchasing a pre-paid credit card for an alleged overdue utility bill.

Investigators with the Elm Grove Police Department managed to trace the scam all the way to Florida, where Petit-Frere was arrested and extradited to Waukesha County for prosecution. This is believed to be one of the only successful convictions of this type of scam in the country.

Since the Green Dot scam first surfaced across the nation a couple years ago, about 3,000 of our customers have been targeted. Fortunately, only a few have lost money.

Customers who receive suspicious phone calls should hang up and call us directly at 800-242-9137 to verify their account status. 

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