Fake Electricity ‘Fixers’ Target Tulum Neighborhoods Amid Service Regularization

Tulum, Quintana Roo — Residents in Tulum neighborhoods undergoing electricity service regularization are being targeted by scammers posing as utility agents who promise to reduce debts or facilitate illegal contracts, authorities have warned.

These intermediaries approach residents offering external solutions to avoid official procedures, a practice that has raised alarms over potential mass fraud in areas with informal basic services. The scheme involves offering non-existent discounts or promising to “clean” consumption records in exchange for cash payments.

This has created confusion among residents who, needing reliable electricity, risk handing money to individuals with no authority to make agreements or issue valid receipts.

In response, CFE (Federal Electricity Commission) issued a statement clarifying that no “arrangements” made on the street or in private homes have legal validity. Fraud attempts have proliferated alongside the detection of direct connections to the grid in various Tulum areas, leading to inspection operations to dismantle non-compliant installations.

The instruction for users affected by these improper collection attempts is clear: any administrative moves or payments must be made strictly at physical offices. This aims to stop the chain of deception affecting household economies of those who, out of ignorance or pressure, turn to third parties to try to formalize their electricity situation.

Officials have urged the public to distrust anyone requesting money on behalf of the electricity service outside institutional channels. Regularization only proceeds under legal terms, so residents are encouraged to report these supposed fixers to prevent them from profiting from service precariousness in neighborhoods.