AIB CUSTOMERS are again being targeted in a text message scam designed to trick people into revealing private details.

A spokesman for AIB confirmed it was seeing an increase in such attempts in recent weeks in what were the largest numbers since last August.

The scam directs recipients to websites designed to look genuine, such as aibsecure.com or aibsecurity.com, none of which are associated with the bank. Customers are asked to enter private details, a practice known as “phishing”.

A spokeswoman for the Irish Payment Services Organisation said phone numbers were likely bought or stolen from marketing databases. Although text message phishing was a much smaller industry than its e-mail counterpart, there had been a handful of successful attempts. One of these cost a victim up to € 30,000.

Customers are advised to delete messages immediately. Replying will likely mark the entry as a valid and result in the customer receiving more messages.

AIB said it does not send out automated text messages to customers but that sometimes branch staff might text a useful phone number to a customer, usually following a conversation with staff.