Bay Area Ethnic Restaurants Getting Conned Into Paying Fake PG&E Bills

Someone is calling up ethnic restaurants in San Francisco and the East Bay pretending to be PG&E and telling them that their power is about to get shut off unless they pay up. As Zagat reports, one of the con artists' most recent targets was New Delhi restaurant, where longtime owner Ranjan Dey, who is no fool, called them on their bullshit and hung up. He then called up PG&E, and someone there confirmed that they were already looking into some similar reports coming from ethnic restaurants in the East Bay, where the crooks had been more successful in bilking some restaurateurs with poor English skills out of some cash.

Zagat's Tamara Palmer says she's trying to get NBC's local investigative unit on the case, but in the meantime, restaurants should be wary of anyone calling up and demanding payments.

[Photo of Ranjan Dey by Sharon Vaknin]

· Bay Area Ethnic Restaurants Targeted in PG&E Scam [Zagat]