Phone Scam Gets Bank Account Numbers
The phone scam, however, got two other people's account numbers. Central Bank officials say the Jefferson City Police Department's quick response helped prevent people from being scammed. The Department immediately shut down the 888 phone number the scammers used to gather account information.
The scam starts out perfectly legal.The people involved collect phone numbers from a national phone list, which are available for anyone to buy. Then they buy a legal internet service that does the phone calling for them, which are the same types of services big corporations use for their automated messages.
"The interesting part about this particular voice mail, or this phone call was that they were able to mask the number so that it showed that it was a Central Bank number calling you," said Dan Westhues, Vice President of Consumer Banking.
The fact that the number is masked makes it easy for customers to get caught up in the scam. Travis Ford from Consumer Protection advises that you never give out any personal information to people who contact you by phone or e-mail.