The phishing scheme asks the financial institution's member/customers, via e-mail, to verify their phone number immediately with the financial institution. If they do not confirm their phone number, their account will be suspended.

The phisher's instructions are:

Step 1: Go to your phone and dial *72;

Step 2: Dial 707-531-4910 (XYZ Bank secure line); and

Step 3: Your phone is confirmed. You will receive a call from us in one hour for final verification. If you have confirmed your phone, you can continue the update process.

By inputting these numbers, victims actually forward their calls to the phisher's redirect number. This will go on until the victims notice they aren't getting any verification calls.

Victims may also get a call from the phisher or an answering machine posing as their financial institution to query any transaction in that period. After they confirm the phone number, the caller asks them to update their personal information, including Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers.

This particular phishing scam was taken down Wednesday morning by an Internet Service Provider, and the telephone company took care of the phone number, according to SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based information security solutions provider. However, the company warns that variances of the scam likely are on the Internet, with a more complex set of "call forwarding" numbers.

This is a type of phishing using the telephone and is blatant fraud. Please be aware that at no time will a representative of Greylock Federal, or any security-conscious institution, contact you to obtain, validate or discuss your "account number", credit card number or any other sensitive personal information. If you receive such a call, please end the conversation immediately and contact Greylock Federal at (413) 236-4000 to report the incident.