Irish people have been warned of a flurry of new scams this week as fraudsters continue to target the Irish market.
Tricks involving AIB, Bank of Ireland, WhatsApp and Revolut have all been identified in recent days.
Here’s all you need to know about the latest schemes;
This convincing trick starts off by sending a WhatsApp message that says: “Hi Mum, my phone isn’t working, please can you phone and text me on this number.”
The scammers then go on to ask the unknowing parent to hand over bank details and make a payment for them.
It’s led consumer rights group Which? to issue a warning about the scam on social media.
Revolut
Scammers are reportedly calling people’s phones pretending to be from Eir’s technical support team and are telling customers their internet needs to be upgraded.
They are then getting the customers to download an app called TeamViewer onto their phones, through which they can take over the device.
They will then ask for your bank details – attached to your Eir account – and a copy of your driver’s licence to prove your identity.
Gardai then said that if a person falls for this, the fraudsters download the Revolut app and transfer money from their bank account as payment.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103’s Cork Today Show today, Sgt John Kelly of Fermoy Garda Station explained: “Using the copy of the driving licence provided by the injured party and their bank account details, they set up a Revolut account and transfer probably in the region of €4,000 out of their account.”
In order to avoid this kind of loss he said: “Short and simple – if you receive a call from somebody claiming to be from Eir or whoever and they’re going into dealing with your bank account details and they’re telling you to install something on your phone or on your computer, just terminate the call straight away.”
AIB
In a fresh reminder, AIB reiterated to the public that they will never send customers a text message containing a link to a website.
It comes after one person contacted the institution on Twitter to query whether the text they received was legitimate.
They asked: “@AskAIB this just got sent to me. Pretty sure it’s a scam and I haven’t touched the link.
“Came in on a legitimate AIB message thread.”
They also attached an image of the message, which read: “AIB: A login attempt was made from Location: Manchester, GB. If this was NOT you, please follow the steps here: aib-online-alert.com.”
In response, a customer service agent from the bank confirmed that the text was a scam attempt.
They said: “Hi, Thank you for sharing this. That is a fraudulent text message, AIB will never send you a text message with a link for a website.
“If you receive any text messages with a link it is best to just delete them.”
Bank of Ireland
In the Bank of Ireland text, recipients are urged to recover their account by visiting a link provided “urgently”.
Gardai are reminding people that the bank will not send customers message containing a link and they are asking people to delete such texts.
A spokesperson for the Cavan/Monaghan region said: “The scam texts just keep on coming. Here is just another example.
“Remember Bank of Ireland will not send a text containing a link.
“Never click on these links and never provide your personal details. Always ignore and delete any texts of this nature.”