Residents in Warren County have been receiving calls from people claiming to be from government agencies, asking for their bank account numbers.

Teresa Johnson of Alvaton said someone called her this week and already had a lot of information, including her name and address.

&#8220They called … about my credit being so good and having paid too much in taxes,” she said. &#8220They finally worked around to tell me a number they said was my bank account number.”

The number wasn’t correct, Johnson said. The man then asked for the correct number and said they couldn’t provide her the payment without it. &#8220I told them they weren’t getting my account number and hung up,” she said.

The Warren County Sheriff’s Office has received a number of complaints from people who have received similar calls, mostly focused on the Richardsville and Girkin communities, said Steven Harmon, department communications manager.

The people claiming to be government agents have called Johnson back since the initial call, she said, and they also spoke with her husband.

Generally, these callers are telling residents they have overpaid on their taxes and are owed a refund. The callers then ask for bank account information so they can deposit their refund within the next three hours, according to a sheriff’s department report. The calls are coming from a number that is blocked from caller ID, according to the report.

The office is asking that people never give personal or financial information to anyone over the phone.

&#8220The best thing we can do right now is warn people,” Harmon said.

Officer Barry Pruitt, spokesman for the Bowling Green Police Department, said they have also received several calls about similar scames.

&#8220In one call there was a foreign-sounding person and then another person was put on the phone,” he said. &#8220There were at least two people involved.”

Caller ID information showed those calls were from out of the area, Pruitt said.

Thus far, he said, there have been no reports that anyone has fallen for the scam, which is generally targeting the elderly.

Anytime someone requests personal information over the phone, you should just hang up on them, said Deputy Daniel Alexander, spokesman for the sheriff’s department.

&#8220The federal government is going to do most of its work by letter,” he said.

Those receiving calls also shouldn’t be fooled if the caller already has some personal information about them, Alexander said, as a lot of basic information can be found on the Internet.

Don’t provide anyone who calls you account numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers or even your address, he said.

While no one has reported falling victim to the scam in this area, it may very well have happened, Alexander said, and that’s enough: If a scammer calls 1,000 people and manages to find one willing to give them an account number, they can quickly clean out that person’s account just by making a few phone calls.