Manitoba Hydro reports they saw a five percent jump in the number of fraud related complaints it received this year over last year. They note it’s a sign more customers are getting bogus emails and texts attempting to scam them out of their money and that could increase during the Christmas season.  87 percent of the scams reported were emails or text with phone and at the door sales making up the rest.

Hydro’s Security Supervisor Chris Malcolm says with scammers becoming more sophisticated it’s harder for customers to tell the difference between scams and legitimate messages.  He says if you get any communication either by email, text or phone claiming to be Manitoba Hydro demanding immediate payment through an unfamiliar method do not respond, hang up or delete the message.