Energy Scams
Our friends at open4energy.com, the leading website on energy saving for consumers and small businesses, have asked us to create a forum for Scamraiders members to report and discuss energy scams -- one of the fastest growing group of swindles across the world.
Post your questions and comments here and let us know how we can help!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Bischoff on -
Greetings to all readers of Scamraiders
It is my great pleasure to have been asked to contribute to this forum. I hope that our information and your shared experiences will prevent any of you from being taken advantage of.
Electricity is not something that the average home owner or small business should "touch" - by which I mean open a distribution box, or rewire an electric motor. In fact may I start by saying "do not touch" unless you are qualified and authorized to be doing so! Electricity can kill if you are not careful!
With that warning out the way, you can see why it is so easy for the average consumer to be scammed, and to never find out that this has been done to them!
With all the talk on energy saving, and pressure on the average consumer to save energy (electricity) there are many many scams being promoted. They range from simple schemes to sell you an electronic book that provides no useful information. Including DIY solar panels, DIY windmills and perpetual motion magnetic generators. There are of NO value at all. If it is a useful technology you will find it well written up on the Internet for FREE.
The more serious of these are devices you buy to plug in to a wall socket, that claim they will save up to 40% of the electricity you use in your home. Most point to a video of some sort showing hoe the device will correct the power factor on your supply, and by doing this make any device that has an electric motor in you home use less electricity. These plug in devices are best compared to the old "snake oil" products. They sound plausible to one not familiar with how electric motors and electricity works, they can be seen plugged in and glowing, and they do nothing!
Then there are the more serious power factor correction scams. At the worst these are combined with face to face selling, and some honest energy services that do save energy. The problem is that a consumer ends up paying many times more for the solution that it is worth.
As a general rule, if you are a residential rate payer, power factor does not affect your electricity bill at all. If you are uncertain about the technology please visit open4enrgy's web site where there is a contact from. We will gladly respond to any questions on your specific situation.
And whatever you do. NEVER pay for one of these scams using a credit card on-line. If you are not sure, and think the device is useful, ask for help! Lurking in the midst of the pyramid schemes to promote these scam energy devices is a second level of really nasty deception. They move about, but they will empty your bank account on completion of the payment. they exist in the midst of "honest scams" to hide their true criminal intent to steal the balance in your bank account.
I do not wish to put people off on-line transaction, in fact quite the opposite, but do not use your credit card with unknown and suspicious on-line vendors.
Over the next weeks we will be posting details on each of the energy scams we have found. We do hope that publishing the information we have will help readers avoid energy scams.
And do not forget that the first and simplest way to save is to turn it off!
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Permalink Reply by Roxanne Jones on -
Is "Ambit Energy" on your list of energy scammers?
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Bischoff on
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It is not, but it will be shortly.
For our readers, electricity is not supplied through pyramid marketing programs.
It is either delivered by a local utility, or what is known as community choice aggregation (a local authority which purchases on behalf of the community), or a local municipality.
Thank you for bringing this to our energy forums attention!
For readers who wish to research this google "ambit energy scams"
And as a general rule, to research any energy saving opportunity Google the "product name plus the word "scam" in your search and you will see what needs to be seen.
Or google "product name and the word open4energy" and you will find our opinion on the solution if we have seen it.
Or send an email to me at bischoff.alex@open4energy.com and we will gladly investigate the solution for you!
If it seems to good to be true, it probably is!
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Permalink Reply by Roxanne Jones on
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Thank you for your response....you said "it will be shortly"...can you tell me based on what? I have read individual complaints, but upon what facts is it being added to your scammer list?
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Bischoff on
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energy saving scams include those where the consumer receives an inadequate value for their money.
In cases like these, where it is not possible to define the issue as illegal, we publish information on the product and links to comments as a scam review.
We are an information provider. By providing accurate information a reader is equipped to make a more informed decision.
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Permalink Reply by Alexander Bischoff on
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I guess this is a final posting I will make for Scamraider - as it was known - but I do hope that Scams, Inc will continue to publish (which we will support) a section on energy scams.
Sadly, energy scams remain 'well' and continue to grow in number. Of course I do wonder what consumers were thinking as they looked for some 'magic pill' for energy efficiency, but despite the wishful thinking, I detest rip offs and encourage all consumers to search 'product name + scam' on any search engine - and to read what is found for them.
The latest directory of energy scams can be found at: http://open4energy.com/energy_scams
I wish good energy saving to all the faithful energy aware consumers in our communities
Alex
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