FBI Warns East Tennesseans of Storm-Related Phone Scam

The FBI says citizens have reported receiving automated calls from a foreign number requesting personally identifiable information. The scheme seeks banking information that was purportedly “lost” due to an outage in the financial institution’s computer system during the recent severe weather that hit Tennessee late last month. The automated female voice asks victims to key in their banking account information in order to re-establish their account with the bank.

“Those receiving unsolicited calls seeking personally identifiable information should report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov,” said Richard Lambert, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Knoxville Division.

Account numbers and passwords should be known only by you and should never be released over the telephone to someone who called you. If you think there is an issue at one of your financial institutions, go there in person or call a publicly listed number for the financial institution.

For more information on how to protect yourself against telemarketing fraud, visit our website at www.fbi.gov and search telemarketing fraud.