When Melanie Maddox received a text message via her cell phone from a bank requesting she call and update her financial information, she normally would have immediately called back.

But there was one major problem: She had no account with Statewide Bank, the text message sender.

“It’s scary,” she said. “If I had an account with them I would have called back. Who knows what they could have done. I could be wiped clean right now.” Maddox is one of dozens, possibly hundreds of Northshore residents who have received the fishy text message on their cell phones, a financial scam the Sheriff’s Office is warning residents to avoid.

“While these schemes are commonly received through email, it is very unusual for them to be transmitted in a text message,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman George Bonnett said. “The public should not be fooled into believing this is legitimate.”

The text message says “Statewide Bank is closed due to unusual activity,” then provides a Texas panhandle-based based phone number to call, located in Lubbock, or Amarillo, Texas, according to an area code search. A call to that number, a day after Northshore residents started to receive the text messages, indicates the number is no longer in service.

In addition, the message is sent from a variety of e-mail addresses, including Jerry@himiaia.com, Joe@flashphoto.org and Service@statewidebank.com, the latter of which is a ruse directly conflicting Statewide Bank policy. While Statewide Bank officials could not be reached for comment, a posting on its Web site, www.statewidebank.com, said the financial institution will never contact customers via e-mail or cell phone.

“Statewide Bank takes the security of our customers very seriously and has implemented various security measures to help protect our customers. Statewide Bank will never contact customers by email, cell phone, or text messaging requesting you to enter credit card, debit card, or login information.”

The Web site message also urges customers to direct such complaints “as soon as possible” to abuse@statewidebank.com.

The text messages seem to target both Statewide Bank customers and those who bank with other financial institutions, likely picked from a Northshore cell phone data bank rather than records of Statewide Bank customers, Bonnett said.

An informal survey by the St. Tammany News found three out of 10 cell phone users received the messages this week.

Northshore residents were likely targeted using Statewide Bank because the majority of its branches are located on the Northshore, including Covington, Mandeville, Folsom and Slidell, according to its Web site.

Because the text messages originated from outside Louisiana, the case may become a federal violation with the FBI investigating, Bonnett said. FBI officials could not be reached for comment.

Bonnett urged anyone whose received the text message to call the Sheriff’s Office at 809-8206.