Ireland scams: Gardai issue fresh warning as thousands of people caught out by new BOI and Amazon texts

Gardai have had to remind members of the public of the advice around scammers and scam texts after a number of people were scammed out of their savings over the weekend.

The rise in calls and texts which claim to be from a number of reputable institutions has seen a huge increase in the last 18 months.

Usually, the calls will play a pre-recorded message, while the texts will ask the recipient to click a link.

Last week, we heard the heartbreaking story of a night nurse at the Mater hospital being swindled out of over €6,000.

Her story, as well as a number of others, have led Gardaí to issue another warning about the scams.

A spokesperson said: "Once again we need to remind people to never ever click on links in unsolicited emails.

"We have had a number of people scammed out of their savings in recent days. Common scam texts and emails are purporting to be from Bank of Ireland.

"We have also received reports of scam calls purporting to be from Amazon which have resulted in people divulging personal information which has ended up seeing them victimised."

The spokesperson then put extra focus on how to spot the scams.

"NEVER DIVULGE PERSONAL OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION TO UNKNOWN PERSONS ON THE PHONE AND NEVER CLICK ON LINKS PURPORTING TO BE FROM FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS."