Controversies and scams related to the federal energy provider, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, are a stye in the public eye these days.
Deceptive practices centering around the CFE are legion and many Mexicans are well aware that con artists may be hanging around outside government offices enticing the public to hand over cash that will allow the scammers to “solve” bureaucratic or legal problems.
In many cases involving CFE, the pitch of the estafadores (hustlers) is to “help” customers who arrive in a panic at a CFE center because their electricity was cut off. Then there are the hustlers who show up at a customer’s home claiming they can arrange a discount on an electricity bill or saying that electricity medidores (meters) are badly installed and that the estafador can repair it. Or the con artist may falsely claim that electrical service is about to be cut off but that, for a fee, they can arrange to keep it on.
The Mexican press sometimes reports such scams and CFE itself has put out warnings to consumers.
“Under no circumstances whatsoever do we send employees to homes to charge money. There are self-service centers, convenience stores, banks and our customer centers, but we don’t take payments from homes,” CFE official Salvador García said last year.
The scammers, of course, normally proffer convincing details such as documents, identification cards and, in at least one case in Chihuahua, the typical, beige, CFE uniform. (However, the Chihuahua scammers made the mistake of tossing a beer can out of their truck, alerting police to stop them and notice the 55 CFE bills inside the vehicle.)
But newer and more convincing deceptions are continually evolving, some based partly on real — and controversial — changes in CFE meters. In one, an e-mail “phishing” scheme, CFE appears to announce that customers can pay their bills from home and reap a 30 percent discount if only they click a link and “Test it now!” (CFE warns that false communications typically contain linguistic errors and even exclamation marks can be a clue that an e-mail is fraudulent, as institutional communications are normally staid in tone.)
Some estafadores are taking deception to new heights by working assiduously and providing a wealth of convincing details. Parishioners at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Guadalajara were recently approached by a friendly, well-dressed man who said he was a CFE employee and could change their meters to a sistema bifasico (biphasic system) involving two meters and thus save the church money.
The man allayed suspicions by attending Mass twice and even reciting the Lord’s Prayer in English. He was eventually given nearly 6,000 pesos, for which he provided “receipts.” But as soon as the man left, promising to return, and parishioners examined the “receipts,” they realized they were simply duplicate CFE invoices. The estafador then stopped answering his cell phone and never did any work.
“It’s easy for someone to go the CFE Web site, sign up as a user, put in somebody’s service number and print out duplicate receipts on their home printer,” said Fernando Diaque, a St. Mark’s parishioner and business owner.
St. Mark’s pastor Jim Priddy said he had been won over by the man’s apparent desire to become a parishioner, and especially by his knowledge of technical matters.
Priddy has an electronics background. “What he said made sense. It gave us confidence in him. And ‘confidence’ is the root of ‘con’ in ‘con man,’” he noted.
Besides having confidence in the man, parishioners were also convinced by the knowledge that CFE sometimes adds or changes meters legitimately. “Yes, CFE has added meters at my house because I have a lot of equipment here,” said a homeowner, adding that uniformed workers showed up in a big truck with a logo.
CFE official García said that when legitimate staff members visit consumers, they always wear a badge with a hologramic logo and the staffer’s photo. He suggested that consumers with doubts about anyone wanting to work on their meters should immediately call the 24-hour CFE customer phone line, 071, “to verify that they are dealing with our service or a CFE worker.” (After calling 071, callers should select option 3. The wait to be attended by a representative can be 10 minutes or more.
CFE representative Alexandra Ángel noted Wednesday that 071 callers can then ask to speak to someone in English.)
Besides the problem of ubiquitous scammers, there is a popular lack of trust in the utility. “CFE is always trying to get more money out of us,” the homeowner lamented.
Other problems involving confidence in CFE are looming on the horizon. A massive, nationwide program is under way to install digital meters, some of which operate via Wifi, utilize “smart cards” (tarjetas inteligentes) and/or involve a prepayment system like those used for cell phones.
The Mexican media is replete with stories about complaints from people who have already had new meters installed. Guadalajara’s Channel 13 featured a report last week detailing charges by angry consumers that the meters have increased their electricity bills.
“The new meters are similar to the ones that are causing a big battle in California,” said computer science engineering professor and Guadalajara resident Mark Jones. “People there say they weren’t aware the new meters were optional and they have doubled their charges.
“That could be because some smart meters send over 4,000 data transmissions per day over Wifi, and Wifi uses a lot of energy, which could really increase the customer’s energy consumption and their bills.” Jones is an expert on dangerous emissions from electronic devices and noted that, besides higher bills, smart meters can also damage human health.
CFE, on the other hand, paints a rosy picture of digital meters, and counters the charges of consumers, claiming that the so-called programmed payment system causes “no increase in the cost of electricity.”
CFE’s website also lists many advantages of the new meters: the customer takes an exact reading and thus avoids estimates; if service is suspended for nonpayment, consumers themselves can easily reconnect it without cost once payment is made; the new meters protect equipment such as refrigerators and computers from power surges.
However, as a recent Channel 13 report showed with its mention of a disgruntled consumer who successfully sued CFE, confidence between the nationally owned electric utility company and consumers is still at a low ebb.