A Cork person has had their bank account cleared after clicking a link in a scam text.
The victim received a message purporting to be from their bank and followed the instruction to click through the link provided.
Hours later they received a call from the actual bank to say their account had been cleared, with a five figure sum of money missing.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, Sergeant John Kelly said: "The caller got a text message claiming to be from the bank, they clicked on the link and within an hour or two they got a genuine phone call from their own bank.
"Be very, very aware, they're still out there with these text messages, just delete immediately – your bank is not going to text you in that manner."
AIB, Bank of Ireland and all other major banking organisations have been warning customers not to click on links in text messages in recent months.
Scam calls and texts have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, crime statistics for Q1 of 2021 show there was a 40% increase in fraud offences in Ireland in the year to June 2021 compared to the previous year.
The increase mostly occurred in Q1 and Q2 of this year and primarily relates to fraudulent attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone as well as fraudulent use of credit and debit card information.
