With help from the Internet, credit-card scam artists in Southwest Colorado seem to have found a new method for employing a very old dirty trick.

A Cortez resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said Friday that she has received three calls in the last month from people claiming to represent a company that provides Internet credit-card security.

"One person claims to be from an Internet-fraud protection organization called the NCCRA," the woman said, adding that the man did not disclose what NCCRA stands for. The woman said that the other two claimed to be from companies called Sentinel and Guard.

The woman said that the man claimed that the organization was an underwriter for the American Express, MasterCard and VISA credit-card companies.

According to the woman’s report, the caller advises potential victims that their credit-card number could be easily accessed and abused through the Internet. The caller then says that he needs some information from the person including their name, phone number and credit-card number.

"The man told me that anybody can get my name and number (off the Internet) and then he told me that they will protect me from anybody else using my number," she said.

Judy Tenzer, director of public affairs for American Express, said that she has not heard anything about this specific scam but said that credit-card consumers should not give out their card information over the phone.

"My advice to anyone who might get a call from someone saying that they are a credit-card provider — ours or anybody else’s — is that they should not provide any information over the phone," said Tenzer. "And if they feel like there is some validity to the call they should call up customer service for the company that they carry and ask them if a representative called them," she said.

Tenzer said that it is also wise to ask the caller for his or her name and phone number. "If they don’t provide their name then there is a good chance that it is a scam," she said.

The spokesperson added that American Express provides its customers with their own in-house Internet credit-card security. American Express does not contract with outside security providers, she said.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said Friday that he has fielded calls from four other Cortez residents claiming to have received similar calls.

According to the Durango Police Department, several Durango residents have taken calls from an individual who tells them that due to some changes in credit-card laws, he is required by the credit-card company to gather the person’s credit information.