Several Greeneville residents reported receiving e-mail on Friday purportedly from a Georgia credit union that warned of restrictions placed on the recipients' accounts.

One woman who received the "fraud prevention alert" e-mail message said she has never had an account with TIC Federal Credit Union in Columbus, Ga., and had no idea why she received the e-mail.

Several Greeneville Sun employees who have no connection to the Georgia credit union were among those who received the e-mail that urges recipients to call a toll-free numbers "regarding recent restriction placed on your account."

The credit union e-mail says employees are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to handle calls.

But when a Greeneville Sun reporter contacted TIC Federal Credit Union for comment on Friday afternoon, a spokesman said the e-mail messages were part of a "phishing scam" designed to defraud those who respond by return phone call.

"We are aware of the phishing scam and the IT (information technology) department is working with the appropriate authorities to get the situation resolved," a credit union spokesman said.

Phishing, according to the Microsoft Web site, "is a type of deception designed to steal your valuable personal data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information.

"Con artists might send millions of fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from Web sites you trust, like your bank or credit card company, and request that you provide personal information."

As scam artists become more sophisticated, so do their phishing e-mail messages and pop-up windows, the Web site says.

One woman also reported receiving, on Thursday, another apparent "scam" e-mail that purported to be from Bank of America, but was not.

The purported Bank of America message informed its recipient that "We have detected a slight error in your billing information. The message warned the recipient's account information would be updated shortly and urged employees to contact the bank via a Web address.

But the Web site of Bank of America warns about phishing scams.

"If you receive an e-mail that you think may be a phishing scam, you should report the e-mail by forwarding it to the following addresses: www.spam@uce.gov and the Anti-Phishing Working Group at www.reportphishing@antiphishing.org," the Bank of America Web site says. "The Anti-Phishing Working Group is a collective organization created to combat phishing fraud, consisting of 680 member companies made up of eight of the top 10 U.S. financial institutions and four of the top five internet service providers.