[Summit] Scam alert

[Robert Mathiesen]

Thanks so much for clearing that up,Lisa!

Robert

On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 10:28 AM Lisa Rigby <iris.rigby at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just to follow up on the cards being left on door knobs for gas
> inspection.... I had RI Energy here this morning for a gas inspection. I
> scheduled them based on a letter I got in the mail. I told the two workers
> that a guy had been here in May. He said "Oh, the cards that they leave on
> doors?" I said "yes!" He said "those guys inspect our work. They're just
> here to look at".... and blah blah told me some technical stuff I can't
> remember. He said "they contact us if they find any problems." So the cards
> on the doorknobs are REAL and NOT A SCAM. Whoever Robert M. spoke with on
> the phone at RI Energy just didn't know what was going on.
>
> Just wanted to get to the bottom of this and update everyone.
>
> Best,
> Lisa Rigby
>
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM Lisa Rigby <iris.rigby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ok I want to follow up on this because I've called RI Energy, the
>> Providence police, and again the "scam" number on the card. This appears to
>> be a mixup with National Grid handing over gas services to RI Energy.
>> That's why when I made that first appointment with the card on the door -
>> that number is handled by people employed by National Grid and they're told
>> to say "This is RI Energy." But RI Energy knows nothing about these
>> inspections.
>>
>> BTW - RI Energy told me that the woman who was so casual and told me
>> "sounds like you have a fun life" - that actually WAS them and a legitimate
>> appointment that they never showed up for. The guy who came by in May with
>> the card on the door and the scam number - that was likely National Grid
>> doing something as RI Energy but they're getting their lines and paperwork
>> crossed.
>>
>> If I find out anything more I'll let you know. I do not think this was
>> someone casing the house or anything.
>>
>> --Lisa Rigby
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 10:44 AM Lisa Rigby <iris.rigby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> This is scary. I had a gas inspection guy come by in May, after I made
>>> an appointment calling the number you gave! I think it was from a card on
>>> the door. Anyway the guy who came for the appointment was probably in his
>>> 60's and very large and in a noticeably bad mood. Showed him into the
>>> basement and he spent a couple of minutes there and left. Then I get a
>>> LETTER in the mail from National Grid saying "call us to schedule a gas
>>> inspection." I called the number to tell them I already had this done in
>>> May. The woman on the phone says they have no record of any inspection
>>> being done. She was actually very casual and noted that the music I had on
>>> in the background "sounds cool" and told me "you sound like you have a fun
>>> life"!! Hahaha... I said actually we do. I know this all sounds bizarre.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I rescheduled with them and I said - "hey I don't care if you
>>> come here every week. We both work from home so there's someone here 100%
>>> of the time. Come every day if you want." She laughed. Nobody ever showed
>>> up for the second appointment. This was in August.
>>>
>>> I don't know who was at my house but burglars must be getting older
>>> cause as I said, this guy looked to be retirement age. I actually said to
>>> my husband "if he's in such bad mood then maybe he needs to think about
>>> retiring." No one has ever robbed or broken into my house - I believe it's
>>> because we're home 100% and the house is never empty. We also often have
>>> multiple cars in our driveway.
>>>
>>> --Lisa Rigby
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 10:08 AM Robert Mathiesen <rmath13 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yesterday or the day before I found an orange doorknob card claiming to
>>>> be from Rhode Island Energy, claiming that federal regulations required an
>>>> inspection of our gas line and giving a number (1-800-815-7050) to call to
>>>> make an appointment to allow someone to access our gas meter inside our
>>>> house.
>>>>
>>>> Something about the card set off alarm bells, so I called RI Energy
>>>> (1-855-743-1101) to ask whether the card really was from them.  The
>>>> representative I talked with could find no internal record of any such
>>>> cards being distributed by them, and also told me that the phone number on
>>>> the card has been associated with other scams in the past.
>>>>
>>>> Neighbors, if you got such a card, I recommend you ignore it.  If you
>>>> already made such an appointment, you might want to cancel it.
>>>>
>>>> Robert
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Summit mailing list
>>>> Summit at sna.providence.ri.us
>>>> http://sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us
>>>> SNA Website: http://sna.providence.ri.us/
>>>>
>>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sna.providence.ri.us/pipermail/summit_sna.providence.ri.us/attachments/20251020/ca429547/attachment.htm>