'Green sticker' furnace scam preys on fears

State utility regulators are warning Utahns of a scam involving unlicensed contractors who are using scare tactics to convince people to have their furnaces inspected.

The scam plays upon Questar Gas Co.'s "Green Sticker" campaign, which asks Utahns to have their furnaces checked by 2008 due to changing natural gas supplies reaching the Wasatch Front.

The scam artists are going door-to-door and using telemarketers, claiming a person's home will explode if the service is not performed immediately.

The Utah Division of Consumer Protection and Utah Division of Public Utilities joined this week in warning citizens of the scare tactics, saying the culprits are preying on people's fears to steal their money.

"Consumers should be informed Questar does not use telemarketers or door-to-door salesmen to solicit business," a prepared statement from the Utah Department of Commerce said. "If you get a call soliciting a 'Green Sticker' inspection claiming affiliation with Questar Gas, hang up."

Constance White, director of the Utah Division of Public Utilities, is asking citizens with senior parents or relatives, or elderly neighbors, to go over the warnings with them.

"You face the possibility of having someone coming into your home and just taking some tools and banging on the furnace a few times, slapping on a counterfeit Green Sticker and collecting a large fee for doing nothing," Francine Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, said in a prepared statement. "Or, even worse, some of these crooks are actually adjusting furnaces without having been properly trained. This could put a family in real danger."

Giani said anyone who thinks they might have already fallen prey to one of these "Green Sticker" scams, or who has been contacted by someone selling a "Green Sticker," should contact Utah Consumer Protection at 801-530-6601.

For help in finding a properly licensed "Green Sticker" contractor, call the Rocky Mountain Gas Association at 801-832-9490 or 800-729-6791, or go online to www.utrmga.org.

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com