A public awareness initiative centred on fraud prevention, run by the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI), is cautioning individuals that they may be duped out of sums ranging between €6,000 and €8,000 due to a new telephone-based fraud scheme. FraudSmart, a program established by the BPFI in collaboration with banking institutions such as AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, Avant Money, An Post Money, Citi Bank, Revolut, Irish League of Credit Unions, and Barclays, aims to enlighten the public about deceptive practices in the banking sector.
The stratagem involves individuals receiving a fraudulent text message claiming to be from their bank, which falsely alerts them to a ‘new’ direct debit set up in their name, according to Niamh Davenport, BPFI’s financial crime chief. The fraudulent message tells individuals to safeguard their funds by shifting them to a ‘secure account’. BPFI highlights that no legitimate bank would ever instruct a client to move funds into a ‘secure account’ or any similar account.
Distinct from previous fraudulent texts, this message does not contain a clickable link but includes a phone number to instil a sense of urgency, Ms Davenport pointed out. Contrary to the warnings banks previously issued cautioning clients against clicking on links in supposed bank communications, she stressed that a legitimate bank would never embed a phone number in a text message.
To guard against such deceptive practices, BPFI has drafted five guiding principles for customers. The protocol includes ignoring the text, not revealing any financial data over text, refraining from clicking on links in texts claiming to be from the bank, not calling numbers supplied in such texts, and never revealing personal details to unvetted sources.
BPFI further advised individuals, if anyone pressures them, for example, to transfer money immediately, they should disconnect the call and dial the number on their debit or credit card instead.
Ms Davenport issued a caution that phoning the supplied number could lead individuals to mistakenly believe they’re corresponding with their bank’s anti-fraud team, when they are, in fact, directly engaging with the scammer. These deceivers prompt their victims to access their banking application and establish a novel payee through a new IBAN supplied by the fraudster, which redirects funds to an alternate account. Subsequently, a deceptive text that includes false confirmation of the transfer and a fabricated deposit reference is sent, with the intention to give credibility to the scam.
Ms Davenport underscored the necessity to remain vigilant regarding the various forms of scams. She highlighted that this particular swindle represents a progression from previous text scams and recommended people to independently confirm their bank’s contact information rather than depending on the details conveyed via text messages.