Scammers swarm through phone lines

— -- The new motto for high-tech thieves may well be, "Reach out and swindle someone."

Cellphones have made it easier to stay in touch, but they have also brought everyone closer to scam artists and tricksters, who are just a few numbers away from separating you from thousands of dollars

Anyone with a phone number is a target, and there is no shortage of flim-flam schemes. Here's a look at some scams happening now across the nation:

Jailhouse jingles. An inmate calls collect from jail and tricks you into dialing a number starting with *72. But *72 activates call forwarding, giving control of your phone to the inmate -- who then makes long-distance phone calls or racks up fees on 900 numbers on your bill.

Election scam. The phone scammer asks you to take a voter survey and says that at the end, you will get a free cruise. When you complete the bogus survey, the scammer asks for a debit or credit card number for port fees.

Utility scam. A man at the other end of the phone tells you that President Obama has approved special funding through the Federal Reserve Bank to help you pay your utility bills. The scammer asks for a Social Security number, then provides you with a fake bank routing number to pay your utility bill.

Granny scam. The scammer pretends to be a relative in urgent need due to an emergency. Seemingly panicked, they say they need funds right away and get you to wire money.

Text message identity rip-off. A scammer offers a free $1,000 Walmart gift card through a link in a text message. When you click it, a website comes up requesting personal information that can be used to steal your identity.

About 70% of spam text messages are financially motivated scams. In July, there were about 30 million spam texts a day, and if things continue at the rate they're going, the average for September will be 45 million a day, says Mary Landesman, senior security researcher for Cloudmark, a messaging security company.

The more information that the scammer has about you, the more convincing they can be. Those active in social media are easier targets, because scammers can tailor the "emergency" to something personal, according to the FBI.

"Some folks share a whole lot about themselves online, and that gives the con man a road map, a legend, to target you," says Jenny Shearer, spokeswoman for the FBI.

Senior citizens are often the victims of scams because they are most likely to answer a ringing phone during the day, says Sally Hurme, elder law attorney with AARP.

"The scammers are exercising good psychological techniques," Hurme says. "The fact that these scams are so successful demonstrates the psychological skill with which they plan their attack. It is all from a well-rehearsed script."

The Nashville Electric Service gets caught in the middle of several phone scams every year. So far this year, three have affected them.

"These people are calling our customers, claiming to be NES employees and asking for credit card numbers and account numbers," says Holden Miller, spokeswoman for NES. "They say their electricity is going to be turned off unless they pay."

In the past few weeks, at least 100 customers have been targeted. Most of the calls happened on Labor Day, when the NES call center was closed, so customers couldn't verify any information.

"It is almost always a phone scam when someone calls you and wants some kind of personal identifying information," says Katherine Hutt, spokeswoman at the Better Business Bureau. "Bank account number, Social Security number, credit card or debit card number -- when someone else initiates the call, they should not be asking you for that kind of information."