Business

New phone scam conning Irish customers out of as much as €8,000, says banking industry body

Industry launches campaign to highlight risks from text message fraud

The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland has released a set of five guidelines for customers to help protect against such scams
The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland has released a set of five guidelines for customers to help protect against such scams
Fiona Keeley
Wed Oct 23 2024 - 00:01

A fraud awareness campaign led by the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) is warning that people are “being conned out of between €6,000 and €8,000” through a new phone scam.

FraudSmart aims to raise awareness about fraudulent activity in the banking sector and was developed by the BPFI in conjunction with AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, Avant Money, An Post Money, Citi Bank, Revolut, Irish League of Credit Unions and Barclays.

The scam sees people receive a text message impersonating their bank, “falsely alerting them to a ‘new’ direct debit that has been set up on their bank account”, said Niamh Davenport, head of financial crime at the BPFI. The text says people need to transfer their money to a “safe account” to protect it.

A bank would never ask you to transfer money from your account to a “safe account” or any other type of account, the BPFI said.

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Unlike past scam messages, this text message does not include a link to click on. Instead, it includes a phone number to add a sense of urgency to the message, Ms Davenport said.

In previous years, banks would warn customers not to click on links from any messages purporting to be from a banking institution. “However, banks will never include phone numbers for customers to ring within a text message,” said Ms Davenport.

The BPFI has released a set of five guidelines for customers to help protect against such scams. The guidelines include not to reply to the text or provide any financial information through text; not to click on any links provided in text messages saying they are from your bank; do not use phone numbers that are sent in a text message saying it is from your bank; and never give away any personal information to anyone.

Ms Davenport warned that if people ring the number provided in the text message, they will be speaking to the fraudster - not a member of the bank’s fraud team. The scammers ask the victim to open their bank app and set up a new payee using a new Iban, provided by the fraudster, to transfer money into a different account. It is followed by a text message confirming details of the transfer and a fake lodgement reference to convince people that the scam is legitimate.

The BPFI added that if someone is pressuring you to do something immediately – such as transfer money – hang up and ring the number on your debit or credit card.

Ms Davenport said it was important “to stay alert to the different types of scams”. She said this scam was an evolution of other text scams and encouraged people to get contact details for a bank independently and not to rely on contact details provided through text messages.

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