O'Fallon police are warning residents about a recent increase in automated calls to customers of local financial institutions regarding credit/debit cards.

The calls are supposedly from the National Credit Assocation or National Credit Foundation advising bank customers their debit/credit card had been deactivated and suspended and advised them to press 1 to reactivate it.

This is a common telephone scam, according to police. If you receive one of these phone calls, police advise you to hang up immediately and never give out your personal information such as Social Security number, date of birth, passwords or account numbers.

For more information on common telephone scams and how to avoid them, visit the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.ftc.gov/taxonomy/term/874.