You've heard of "phishing" - with a P-H - where you receive a bogus email from your bank or credit union asking for some very personal information. Now, the same bad guys are using text messages in a scheme called "smishing" - an acronym for short message services. And it's gotten so bad that the Washington State Attorney General is now investigating.

Connie Choate reads a smishing text on her cell phone: "Dear credit union customer."

Delores Leder’s text was similar: “We regret to inform you that we had to lock your bank account access.”

When both women received the messages on their cell phones, they say their hearts dropped. Choate said "it would probably have devastated us." Leder tells KIRO 7 "I panicked and I called the bank and then I called KIRO."

Both women received an urgent text message from a credit union claiming their account was frozen. Choate called the number and quickly realized it was a hoax.

“First they wanted an account number and press pound. Then they wanted my social security number and press pound," she explained.

State authorities say the text messages appear to be blasted out to cell phones, either randomly or selected from a phone list.

“Identity theft is the most serious consequence," said Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna.

According to McKenna, the number of smishing or texting complaints is on the rise. And like any identity theft scam, it's tough to stop.

“When it's new,” McKenna says, “people become more vulnerable to it. We have to constantly educate consumers about the latest tricks of the trade that these con artists use."

According to the CTIA Wireless Association, text spam has grown rapidly within the past few years. In 2006, more than 800 million spam messages were blasted out via text. In 2007, it jumped to 1.1 billion, and last year it was estimated that 1.5 billion text messages were spam.

At Watermark Credit Union in downtown Seattle, employees are well aware of smishing. Trained operators alert customers daily about the latest identity theft threats. Watermark says the number of fraud cases are up, and consumers aren't the only ones feeling the pinch.

"For the credit union industry it is extremely costly,” Watermark’s Sherry Lotze says. “We put a lot of effort in educating our members and employees so we can help defer those costs."

Delores Leder never replied to the text message; she ended up calling her bank. As did Connie Choate. Fortunately, neither woman fell for the scam and the texts have stopped. But had they not been warned, both women fear they could've lost everything.

"They could use my accounts to clean me out," said Leder.

Consumers should remember that banks and credit unions will never reach out to you for personal information, so if you receive one of those texts, the best thing to do is just erase it. Of course you can also call your cell phone provider and block texting from your phone.