GARDAÍ in Clare are warning the public to be wary of potential scam phone calls or texts.
This comes after a quick-thinking North Clare resident foiled an attempt by a scam artist to
get their financial details over the phone.
According to gardaí the man received a phonecall from a 0043 number last week. The person on the other end said they were from Visa security in Dublin and that at 6 am someone had bought a phone on eBay for €150 while at the same time €1,100 was transferred from his account to Brazil.
The person asked had they given their card details to anyone. Luckily the Clare man realised the call was suspicious and hung up.
In advising people to be wary, Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Triona Brooks revealed
that she has also been unsuccessfully targeted by scammers. She outlined that she recently
received a text purporting to be from Bank of Ireland. The text stated that her card had
been used for an online transaction at 1800hrs and if she had not used it to go to another
website to review the transaction.
“I don’t have a Bank of Ireland account. These are all scams and we are asking people to
hang up or delete a text message as your bank will never contact you by text or over the
phone looking for your personal and bank details,” she said.
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.