Irish Water warns customers about email scam

Fake message claims to be seeking details for company's ‘account maintenance’

Irish Water is warning customers about a fake email claiming to be from the company.
Irish Water is warning customers about a fake email claiming to be from the company.

Irish Water customers are being targeted by a hoax email seeking confidential information about their accounts.

The email, which carries the logo from Irish Water, claims the company is currently performing annual account maintenance. It provides a link that urges customers to log in to their account, and a second link claiming to be to the utility firm’s information booklet.

However, the links, which point to a third party website instead of directly to Irish Water, have already been disabled.

The utility company has warned customers against clicking on the link or replying to the email, and said its systems have not been breached.

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A number of Irish organisations have been hit by phishing scams - where fraudulent emails claiming to be from legitimate companies are sent to people to try to trick them into revealing personal or financial data - in recent months. Electric Ireland issued a warning to customers in November about an email circulating that sought personal information from customers along with a scan of their passport. People have also received fake messages claiming to be from the Revenue Commissioners in the run-up to the deadline for filing tax returns.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist