An Garda Síochána at the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau have become aware of a ‘fraud’ where criminals are trying to obtain the personal banking or credit details of people under the guise of a request to update personal Netflix accounts with banking and/or credit card details.
Gardai say this is a fake email and any financial information disclosed will be used to commit fraud offences, including account take over, where bank accounts are taken over and all funds withdrawn.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lordan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau is warning the public to never reveal their personal banking or credit card details in response to unsolicited emails, text messages, SMS messages or phone calls.
“Where a person is concerned at contact from what appears to be a genuine entity such as Netflix or their Bank, they should look up that entity independently and make contact to check if this contact is genuine,” he says.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lordan is also urging the public to stop and think before releasing any personal data to persons unknown and says” if in doubt, don’t do it”.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.