Article in the Jeff City paper today explains the latest phone scam to hit the city. A recorded message claims to be from Central Bank, one of the major banks in town, asking for account information. T

his con artist uses three different scams: phishing, vishing and caller ID spoofing.

In a phishing scam, you get an email that looks like it's from your bank, and it asks for personal info (checking account, Social Security #, etc).

Vishing is the phone version of that - you get a call from someone claiming to be your bank or other important group, asking for the info.

With caller ID spoofing, someone makes it appear they're calling from a different number. It's the telemarketing equivalent of wearing a halloween mask of a famous person. In this case, when consumers checked their caller ID, they saw the number for Central Bank.