SPRINGFIELD -- Executives at Empire Bank responded to many phone calls on Monday about a scam targeting Ozarkers by the phone.  Hundreds received automated calls telling them that their bank information was about to expire and they needed to update it by visiting a Web site.

  Already, one person has lost money on this phishing scheme.  That's because the Web site to which people were directed looked exactly like the real Empire Bank Web site.  The bank has been able to shut down that fake Web site but not without at least one person falling victim to the scam.

  The automated calls rang at hundreds of homes across the Ozarks, including Jim Tyson's.

  “I immediately smelled a rat, I guess you could say.  I checked it out and, within a few minutes, I thought, ‘I can't really call the cops on this but I’ve got to get the word out,’ so I just called KY3,” said Tyson.

  The call raised a red flag for Tyson because he's not an Empire customer.  Out of curiosity he went to the Web site, empirebankservices.com (which is no longer available.).

   “It looked real legitimate.  It looked like the real deal, so I thought I would just try and make up a password and log in an ID, and it worked.  They wanted someone's real login, ID and password.”

  “The whole point of this game is to get personal identifying information and debit or credit card information and PINs so they can do bad things with it later,” said Cindy Hardy, a vice president and fraud specialist at Empire Bank.

  Harding says the bank fielded dozens of calls on Monday, both from customers and noncustomers who'd received the phone calls.

  “Anybody who had a bank account or a credit card account or any type of account anywhere, a store account.  If you get a prerecorded message, telling you they need more information and they want you to go to a Web site, don't do it.  If they want you to call a certain number, don't do it,” said Harding.

  The bank says the person who put up the Web site is likely outside the country, so it will be hard to track him down.  The other problem is the scamsters also were trying to ruin the reputation of other businesses by hijacking their phone numbers to make the calls.  Some people received calls that, on Caller ID screens, said Sears or toll free call, or even Empire Bank itself.