COEUR d'ALENE - It didn't take Rosalind Cori long to figure something was wrong when she answered her phone a few days ago.

An automated voice delivered the news: Her Wells Fargo debit card had been deactivated.

"I would have to do all these things to get it activated again," the Coeur d'Alene woman remembered.

Like punching in her bank account number.

One thing stopped her.

She doesn't have a Wells Fargo account.

"I may be old, but I'm not stupid," the 74-year-old said with a chuckle.

Unfortunately, not everyone stopped when she did.

A phone scam has recently become prevalent in Kootenai County, in which a message tells folks to provide private banking information to address problems with their Wells Fargo account.

Several who did punch in their information have had money stolen from their accounts, said Sgt. Christie Wood with the Coeur d'Alene Police.

"One guy lost $270," Wood said.

The police don't know who's behind the scam, she said, adding that a machine is likely cold calling random numbers.

The only clue, she said, is Romania.

"People who have lost money, the money is being transferred to somewhere in Romania," she said.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department hasn't had any complaints about the scam, said Lt. Stu Miller.

But he has personally been called three times, he said, once this week.

"I don't even listen to the whole message," he said. "I tell people the same thing: 'If there's not a human being talking to you, or you can't verify it's your own bank, put yourself on the Do-Not-Call registry.'"

This kind of operation is difficult to track down, Miller added.

"The numbers generally don't go to anybody," he said. "If you call them back on the number that comes up on Caller ID, it goes to 'this number does not exist.'"

There are red flags to recognize the scheme, Wood said.

A bank will never ask for an individual's account number, for instance.

"They have your account number," she said.

Those who do provide their private information, she added, should call their bank immediately and close their accounts.

"I think the bank has been able to intercede in a couple of them," she said.

Besides depriving some individuals of their hard-earned savings, this scam also hasn't been the best PR for Wells Fargo.

The company has been inundated with customer complaints about the matter, said spokeswoman Amy McDevitt.

"People are coming into the stores, they're calling our 800 number and asking about this," she said. "It definitely has an impact on our company and our business."

Wells Fargo branches have been fielding such complaints all over the country, McDevitt added.

"It's not particular to Idaho," she said. "In fact, we're one of the last people to have been receiving this."

The company's fraud prevention team is trying to shut down any transactions through the scam immediately, she added.

"We take our customers' security really seriously," she said.