Greene Co. Among

8 To 10 Locales,

Secret Service Says

By BILL JONES

Staff Writer

Greene County was not the only area of the country hit by an international telephone scam designed to drain the bank accounts of the unwary.

Roland McAmis, resident agent in charge of the Knoxville office of the U.S. Secret Service, said some 8 to 10 areas of the country were targeted recently by an international organized crime group.

The organized crime group, McAmis said, routed recorded messages to U.S. phone numbers through an Iowa telephone company where the group had leased a block of telephone numbers.

Thousands of Greene County residents received telephone calls on Wednesday night and Thursday morning that claimed to be from Andrew Johnson Bank and which warned the recipients that their bank cards had been canceled.

The recorded messages directed persons to call a Des Moines, Iowa, telephone number, supposedly to get their bank cards reinstated.

When that number was called, residents heard another recorded message that directed them to key in their bank account and PIN numbers.

Anyone who did that, McAmis said, opened the way for the international criminals to withdraw money electronically from the person's bank accounts.

Two Report Losing Money

Reports on file at the Greene County Sheriff's Department this morning (Friday) indicated that two county residents told sheriff's deputies late Wednesday and Thursday that they had discovered money missing from their bank accounts after they responded to the the bogus messages.

In one instance, a Ripley Island Road resident told Deputy Sheriff Toby Price that she had discovered that $426 had been withdrawn from her bank account after she received a series of telephone calls on her home and cell phones.

In addition, a Harold Cemetery Road resident told Deputy Sheriff Jason Taylor about 8:30 a.m. Thursday that she had found that $601.76 had been withdrawn from her bank account after she called an Iowa telephone number that she had been given in a text message she received.

Although some area residents fell victim to the scam, McAmis said, most of those who received the calls were not deceived.

"The important thing to remember is that banks will never call you or send you electronic mail asking for this type of information," McAmis said.

Bank's Records Safe

He also noted that Andrew Johnson Bank's own records were not compromised by the scam.

McAmis said the criminals did not obtain telephone numbers of local residents from the bank.

Instead, he said, the criminals apparently used computer software to sequentially generate calls to many telephone numbers in the 423 area code on Wednesday and Thursday.

That, he said, is why many people who had no banking relationship with Andrew Johnson Bank received the automated telephone calls.

Late Thursday morning, McAmis said the Secret Service, in cooperation with the FBI, had managed to shut down the block of Iowa phone numbers used by the criminals.

Another Area Hit

One of the other areas affected by a similar scam was in central Missouri, according to an article posyed on the Web site of KRCG-TV in Jefferson City, Mo.

The July 18 article said Central Bank there had been targeted in similar fashion to Andrew Johnson Bank here.

The story said bank officials said about 10,000 people in at least two Missouri counties had received phone calls that told them their bank accounts had been "locked" or that their bank cards had been "suspended."

Those who received the calls were told to call an Iowa telephone number with the same area code that local victims were directed to call in order to have their accounts "reactivated."