Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) is expecting an increase in financial scams in the coming months as Ulster Bank and KBC Bank prepare to leave the Irish market.
During the first six months of this year, victims of text-message scams were deceived into paying out €1,700 on average.
The group’s fraud awareness initiative, FraudSMART, has warned that criminals may try to take advantage as customers move their accounts to another financial institution.
It said that fraudsters may use scam emails, text messages, calls and social media posts to get personal information, bank account or card details.
FraudSMART said that the criminals often try to panic or rush people into clicking on a link that will bring them to a fraudulent website to set up a new account, which will appear exactly like that bank’s website.
Criminals may also attempt to get customers to download an app which enables them to take over an existing bank account.
FraudSMART warned that some scams warn that a person’s salary, standing orders or direct debits will be cancelled.
Anyone who gets such messages is advised not to click on the link and to contact their employer directly, or if you receive a call seeking banking or card details, hang up and contact your company directly.
Fraudsters may also try to scam the public by falsely claiming that a service or utility is going to be cut off from a customer.
The advice, again, is not to engage with the message and to contact the service provider directly using the phone number provided on their website.
FraudSMART said that there is a risk criminals will use this account transition period to get personal information by claiming there is a problem with setting up a new account.
“A bank will never ask you to transfer money to a ‘safe account’,” it added.
Anybody who thinks that they may have been a victim of a scam is advised to contact their bank as soon as possible.