Progress Energy is urging customers be on alert for a new utility bill payment scam affecting customers across the country. Scammers claim that President Obama will pay customers’ utility bills through a new federal program. Progress Energy has received reports of customers who have been contacted about this scam in its Carolinas and Florida service territories.

According to the Better Business Bureau, customers have been contacted in person and through fliers, social media and text messages with claims that President Obama is providing credits or applying payments to utility bills. To receive the money, scammers claim they need the customers’ Social Security and bank routing numbers. In return, customers are given a false bank routing number that will supposedly pay their utility bills. In reality, there is no money, and customers believe they have paid their bills when in fact they have not.