Pasadena Water and Power Warns of Scam Calls Demanding Payment Within 30 Minutes

The phone rings, and a voice says your power shuts off in 30 minutes unless the bill is paid right now. It is not a bill. It is a scam — and Pasadena Water and Power says its customers keep getting the call.

The city-owned utility is warning residents about callers who pose as PWP employees, demand immediate payment, and threaten to cut off water or electricity within the half hour.

According to PWP’s fraud advisory, the callers work from toll-free and spoofed numbers and push people to pay before they have a chance to think it through.

As of Aug. 7, PWP’s advisory page lists two numbers behind recent attempts: (800) 309-0160 and (800) 401-1996.

In some incidents, the utility says, scammers use spoofing technology to make PWP’s real customer service line, (626) 744-4005, show up on caller ID — so beware, the incoming phone number can be faked.

What a real PWP contact never does is just as useful to know.

The utility says it does not demand payment over the phone, does not send someone to collect in person, and never tells customers to buy prepaid gift cards or send a wire transfer.

Delinquent accounts get a “Final Notice” and a “Disconnect Notice” by U.S. Mail, with a final due date, before any service is cut.

PWP adds a simple test: if you are told to pay outside its standard channels (which are its website, the mail, automatic debit, its automated phone system, or the City Hall payment center) then that instruction is itself the scam.

“Remember that Pasadena Water and Power will never threaten to disconnect services via phone or demand payment through apps,” the utility said in a Facebook post flagged #FraudAlert.

The pitch tends to look and sound convincing.

“This scam verbiage and logo looks very legitimate,” City of Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian said in an earlier warning about the same kind of fraud.

The problem is not unique to Pasadena. Southern California Edison, which supplies most of Altadena’s electricity, issued its own warning this year. “Scammers rely on creating a sense of panic by threatening to remove a customer’s meter or disconnect their service unless they provide an immediate payment,” the utility said, adding that its customers filed 1,750 fraud complaints in 2025.

Residents who get one of these calls can hang up and verify their account by calling PWP customer service directly at (626) 744-4005, open 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays except holidays, at 100 North Garfield Avenue, Room N106. Fraudulent payments can be reported to the Pasadena Police Department at (626) 744-4241, and scams can be reported to the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov.

The tell is the clock. A real utility gives notice by mail, with a date. A scammer gives you 30 minutes.