Phone scammers may have gotten access to Entergy customer billing data

Evidence is mounting that suggests phone scammers may have gained access to Entergy New Orleans customers’ billing data and tried to use it to fraudulently collect their money.

Entergy has been warning customers for years about a scam where someone calls claiming to be collecting delinquent electric bills and threatens to cut off service if they don’t pay immediately over the phone.

This scam was identified in Better Business Bureau reports and news stories across Entergy’s service regions last year, from Arkansas to Mississippi. But a WWL-TV report Monday showed the scam appeared to have grown more sophisticated in late 2020, with one customer saying the scammers were able to cite real account balances to appear legitimate.