Toronto Hydro has seen a “spike” in what it’s calling a sophisticated scam to defraud its customers by threatening to disconnect their power.

Arthur Ewing is the owner of the sports bar Ace’s Place in the Guildwood Plaza in Scarborough. He says that last Friday night someone claiming to be with Toronto Hydro called his bar saying he was behind in his payments.

“I told him I paid the bill, but he said no, it hasn't been paid and that they never received the money from the bank. They said I had to deposit the funds right away or they would be disconnecting the hydro," Ewing said.

The sports bar owner was concerned about losing hydro with a busy weekend ahead.

“I have lots of reservations on Fridays and Saturdays and my restaurant would be powerless. I wouldn't be able to serve drinks and I wouldn't be able to serve food,” he said.

The caller asked for Ewin’s account number and billing information. He was told he should make the payment through a bitcoin machine and was told where to find one.

Ewing says he had concerns about making the payments, but was told if there was a problem he could correct the billing issue on Monday.

The caller told him to make a payment of $1,450 and then another payment $1,850. When the caller demanded more money, Ewing says he hung up and called Toronto Hydro directly. That’s when he found out he had been scammed.

“The way the scammer spoke to me and asked questions was very similar to the way the staff at Toronto Hydro asked me questions about my accounts,” said Ewing.

"We never threaten to disconnect power immediately, a spokesperson for Toronto Hydro told CTV News Toronto. “We also never proactively ask for payment by pre-paid card and we don't accept Bitcoin.”

Toronto Hydro says it has seen an increase fraudulent activity and has several scams outlined on it's website.

While the warnings are on the website, Ewing says there have been no notices in his paper statement.

“I didn't want anyone else to false into this trap. I think Toronto Hydro should be giving out this information so that this doesn't happened to anyone else."

Toronto Hydro says scammers are asking customers to call 1-800 numbers, which the utility doesn’t do. Officials also warn that customers should not click on links in e-mails or texts asking you to accept electronic transfers because that is also a scam.