Gardai are warning members of the public to never hand over their bank card to a third party, which follows an increase in fraud.
The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau wishes to warn the public about a fraud ring targeting bank accounts, using third parties to enable the fraud.
A garda spokesman said: "This fraud has resulted in the theft of very significant sums of money from victim bank accounts."
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The fraud occurs when Fraudsters send out SMS/Texts with a link to what appears to be a genuine bank website, and the SMS/Text will appear to be from a bank and the initials of the bank will be included in the link to make it appear genuine.
Once the victim clicks the link and enters their personal details, the fraudster monitors the log in, and recover the personal details, the log in number and password/code.
They then call the victim, pretending to be from the fraud department of the bank and convince the victim that their account is compromised and that their bank card is required by the bank for ‘forensic testing’ or some other reason.
They tell the victim that the bank will send out a 3rd party to collect the card, and they will be met by a person on foot who will take possession of the card
The card is then used to withdraw cash and to transfer funds out of the victims account.
Advice
1. Never CLICK on links in an unsolicited text message.
2. Never give away your PIN number or ONE TIME codes, or online banking details/passwords. Your bank will NEVER ask for these details
3. NEVER act on advice or instruction received from during an unsolicited call
4. NEVER download an APP on the instruction from an unsolicited call
5. NEVER hand over your Bank Card to a 3rd party
Read more: Young woman sends urgent warning after phone scammers impersonate gardai
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