ANYONE who makes contact unexpectedly and requests personal information such as bank details are not to be trusted, gardaí in Clare have warned in the wake of further reports of people becoming victims of scams.
Clare Victim Liaison Officer Garda Siobhán Madden has revealed details of two frauds reported to gardaí recently, while offering advice to the public to be vigilant.
The first incident saw a man receive a phone call for a person pretending to be ringing from his bank.
“The caller alleged that he was an employee of the bank and stated that he had observed suspicious activity on the injured party’s account. The injured party confirmed that he did not carry out any transactions on this date and whilst on the phone a text message came through to the his phone, he believed it to be from bank, the message was an authentication code, which the injured party called out to the caller, the injured party then checked his account whilst still on the phone to the bank, and noticed that money was taken from his account. The injured party then realised this was a scam and the call ended. He made contact with his bank and cancelled his card and froze his account,” said Garda Madden.
Meanwhile, a woman has contacted the gardaí to report receiving a message claiming to be from her bank with a link stating suspicious activity on her account and to re-authenticate her account.
“She clicked into the link and entered her details. On May, 6 she received a phone call from a male claiming to be from the bank. He convinced her to use her card reader and he withdrew a sum of money from her account,” said Garda Madden.
She advised, “Whilst the scammers may change their stories or methods, their goal is always the same – they want to access your sensitive information and get their hands on your money. Never give out your information be it over the phone, text or email.
“We need everyone to spread the word, people of all ages and all walks of life are falling victim to fraud on a daily basis. Anyone who rings, texts or emails you out of the blue and requests personal information such as bank details, they are not to be trusted. Do not click into any links they send you or call the number they contact you from or that is stated in their email.”