As many as 9,000 Dominion Peoples Gas customers have mistakenly received notices from a Connecticut collection agency. The letters, which began arriving late last week, tell customers they are getting a final notice on overdue bills. They demand payment by Sept. 9. But Dominion and the collection agency, R.M. Connecticut Services, have said most people received the letters by mistake. They should not pay the bill. "I don't know how it happened, but we're telling people to just ignore the notices," Dominion spokesman Dan Donovan said. Dominion customer Ed Bulger of New Kensington didn't get a collection notice. But his elderly mother did get one, demanding $106. "My mother was going to pay it," he said. Bulger said he knew of several other neighbors older than 80 who also received the letters, prompting him to suspect the letter was a scam. "Someone was hoping that even if 100 people sent money, they'd be happy," Bulger said. "This was absolutely aimed at senior citizens." The collection agency, which is in East Hartford, Conn., gave only limited information about the mistake. "Those letters were sent by mistake and they will receive an apology," said Cynthia Magee, a company supervisor. Donovan also said the letters weren't a scam, but a complication of a power company bankruptcy. New Power, a former subsidiary of Enron, used to market gas eventually used by some customers in western Pennsylvania. According to the company's Web site, New Power filed for bankruptcy protection June 11. Other gas companies, including Dominion, bought the rights to serve former New Power customers. During the transfer of those customers, Donovan said, New Power asked R.M. Connecticut Services to collect overdue bills from a few dozen customers. Notices were mistakenly mailed to many more, he said. Customers should pay only bills that come from Dominion Peoples Gas and disregard collection notices for money they know they don't owe, Donovan said. Customers who mistakenly paid the amount demanded in the collection letter should contact R.M. Connecticut Services for a refund, he said.

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