People have been warned not to call a fraud phone number used by scammers posing as Revenue.
Fianna Fáil TD and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Seán Fleming, has warned people against phoning a 1590 number to get through to the Revenue Commissioners.
Fleming told Revenue Commission Chairman , Niall Cody, “more needs to be done to protect consumers from highly experienced and sophisticated scammers“ during a PAC meeting.
He said: “This 1590 number is run by a company in the UK and people who call it will be charged €30 for a 10 minute phone call – this is outrageous and is completely taking advantage of people.
“If you search for a phone contact number for Revenue on google you will likely see a 1590 number. This is usually very high up, if not at the top, of a Google search.
Mr Fleming added that he asked Cody “to work with his European counterparts and contact Google to ensure that they keep the correct Revenue phone number to the top of a google search.
“I also urged him to introduce a system whereby when a person phones Revenue through the connection service, they are told immediately on speaking to a Revenue representative that they have been connected through a third party which charges excessive amounts, and they should be given the direct phone line number and asked to hang up and call back on that number.
