Unwanted Knocks At The Door: Look Out For ‘Slammers’ Promising Lower Utility Bills

17th Street resident Sarah Flaccavento has a close relationship with the neighbors in her building. And that’s a good thing when it comes to marching unwanted visitors out the door.

On Monday, November 9, the neighbors worked together to rid their building of people posing as utility company representatives promising to lower their Con Ed or National Grid bills.

“We’re pretty close to each other, and we’re aware of people coming to the building — such as UPS during delivery times,” says Flaccavento.

According to Flaccavento, two men came to her door asking about her utility information. She believe this was a scam. “This happened to us a few years back. We walked them out immediately and called the cops about trespassing,” she said.

Flaccavento referenced an article from 2008 in the Daily News that reported this type of scam. The method these false representatives use is called “slamming.”

As described in the Daily News article, “Slamming is the practice of switching utility suppliers without the customer’s knowledge or duping them into a bad deal…sometimes they learn account numbers and switch gas or electric service without permission. Salespeople even masquerade as Con Ed employees to get the job done.”

In order to alert others in the building, Flaccavento emailed her neighbors while the individuals were knocking on other doors. Flaccavento described the demeanor of the individuals, saying that “they obviously have a script they memorized. They were determined to engage.”

Luckily, the situation did not become dangerous. “They seemed annoyed that we wouldn’t engage,” said Flaccavento, “but nothing violent came of it.

However Flaccavento’s concerns did not end when the individuals left the building. “I heard a guy say on a cell phone, ‘Let’s go one block building over.’ They were planning on moving on to another apartment building,” she said.

Con Ed has been aware of the situation for some time, and offers the following advice to their customers:

Anyone approached by someone claiming to be from Con Edison should ask to see identification. If you still have doubts, call 1-800-75-CONED to confirm the person is a company employee. If you think you have been a victim of a scam, call your local police department.

Be alert if a telephone caller asks you to arrange for any pre-paid debit card as payment for your bill, or to send money to an out-of-state address. Never arrange payment or divulge account or personal information, including debit or credit card information, over the telephone, unless you are certain you are speaking to a Con Edison representative.

Bob McGee, spokesperson for Con Ed told us that, “we won’t have people showing up to your door asking to see your Con Ed bill. And you can always ask for identification.”

New York State Department of Public Service has a complaint line set up for this particular issue. You can reach them at

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We have also reached out to the 72nd Precinct but have not yet heard back.

At this point, we do not have knowledge of additional situations taking place in the neighborhood. That said, this is a good opportunity to check in with your neighbors and be aware of unwelcome visitors in your building.