Smishing scams have been on the rise in Ireland over the past 18 months, and while numerous warnings have been issued by experts over recent months, one ‘incognito’ scam is catching many out.
A new form of fraudulent behaviour has seen criminals sending messages purporting to be from Irish banks to customers - with the messages embedded in existing threads of messages from banks to customers.
One Irish woman fell for the trick two days before she realised a €1,700 was missing from her account.
She explained that she had been extremely busy with work and in the midst of the mayhem saw a message from Bank of Ireland about “limiting” her account.
She said she received a “text from the same text chain as past legitimate texts from BOI about Limiting my account.
“I entered in my details and thought nothing of it.”
She said that days later when checking her account, she noticed that the “money went all out through a Revolut account.”
In a post online she explained that she “fell for one of those smishing scams with BOI two days ago and only realised today that €1,700 was gone from my account.
“I wouldn't usually fall for such scams but the past few weeks have been quite hectic in both social and work life.”
According to her Facebook post, she has been told by gardai that her funds will likely be returned to her - however, a timeline for the return is unknown.
Bank of Ireland has released advice for customers in recent months and said the main things to look out for are:
- Text messages claiming to be from your bank, asking you to confirm financial or personal information
- Often they claim that urgent action is needed or there will be negative consequences
- They may ask you to click on a link directing you to a website or to provide a number to call in order to “verify” or “update” your personal current account
- Fake links lead to fake websites where you may be asked to provide personal information. The fraudster then uses that information to transfer money from your account
They also confirmed that Bank of Ireland will never:
- Send you a text with a link directly to the login page of our online banking channels
- Ask you to provide all the digits of your six-digit 365 PIN
- Ask you to transfer money out of your account to protect yourself from fraud
