10/16/2026
SCAM ALERT: Fake SDG&E “meter pull” call
Yesterday a man calling himself “Thomas” called our office at Hot Diggity Dog Resort from (619) 558-0909. He told my staff that SDG&E was coming to pull our electric meter for non-payment and that the crew would be there within 55 minutes. My office called me and gave me that number and a second one, (888) 230-9634.
The first number didn’t go through. The second one put me in touch with a man named Peter Somers. He asked for my SDG&E account number. I wasn’t anywhere I could look it up, so he asked for our address instead and came back with “Hot Diggity Dog Resort?” I said yes. Now I realize that’s easy enough to find, but at the time it sounded like he had our account right in front of him.
He told me I had to go to 1360 East Lake Parkway in Chula Vista and pay $1,399.72 in cash or by debit card, or the meter was coming out. I told him there was no way I could get to Chula Vista from Escondido in time, and that we had dogs boarding and could not have our electricity turned off. He said he’d check with his supervisor. A few minutes later he came back and said they had a payment desk at the Walmart at 1266 East Valley Parkway in Escondido. He’d hold the crew off for one hour, but no longer, and could I get there by then? I said yes.
Here’s a bit of the back story on why I was half believing him. Back in July we had fraud on the credit card that auto-pays our SDG&E bill, so my mind went right to “Oh no, maybe it didn’t get paid.” It turned out we were current, and our next bill isn’t due for two more weeks. But I didn’t know that yet, and I was rattled.
He told me to call him back at (619) 393-8387, extension 6057, from the Walmart parking lot, and not to go inside before I called. He said the billing desk would text me a barcode in the meantime. So I got $1,400 in cash and headed to Walmart. When I called, someone else answered, said Somers was the “Accounts Manager,” and transferred me. I still didn’t have the barcode. Somers told me the crew had been sent to another location but was now 500 feet from my meter, and he would expedite it. The barcode came through immediately. He told me to go to customer service, have them scan it and put $1,400 on it, and give them the cash.
The lady at customer service asked for my SDG&E account number, and I didn’t know it. She said she had never seen anyone pay SDG&E with a barcode and didn’t think she could do it. I insisted. I told her SDG&E was about to shut off our electricity, and she called a manager over. The manager said this was probably a scam. I still insisted, and they took my driver’s license and started trying to put the barcode in. Then another Walmart employee came up and said, this is a scam, SDG&E does not send barcodes. At that point I had THREE Walmart folks telling me it was a scam, and I relented.
I was still scared. I tried to look up our account on my phone and couldn’t remember the password, so I went through my email and found a current one from SDG&E. It showed our next payment due in about two weeks. That’s when I finally felt relieved.
Had it not been for those Walmart employees, these criminals would have had $1,400 of our money. And it was a blessing that I didn’t know my account number. It was the first thing Walmart asked for, and if I’d had it, the whole thing might have looked legitimate to them too.
What SDG&E says about these calls:
SDG&E will never call to demand immediate payment over the phone with a threat of immediate disconnection.
10news
Scammers use caller ID spoofing, so the number on your phone can look like SDG&E’s.
nbcsandiego
Scammers ask for payment by Bitcoin, Zelle, Green Dot debit cards, or other methods SDG&E doesn’t use.
10news
Small businesses, restaurant owners, and the elderly are among the most commonly targeted.
10news
To check your account, hang up and call SDG&E directly at 1-800-411-7343.
sdgetoday
Sources: SDG&E’s own scam warnings at sdgetoday.com/news/sdge-warns-utility-scam-calls and sdgetoday.com/news/sdge-consumer-scam-alert, plus 10News San Diego coverage at 10news.com.
If you run a business, tell your employees about this. They called my office, not me.
My sincere thank you to the Walmart employees on East Valley Parkway.
— David
To protect customers, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is alerting customers to a recently documented text-message utility scam trying to defraud local utility customers. The scheme attempts to exploit SDG&E’s legitimate use of text messages and email notifications to inform residential customers ...
