Revenue Commissioners, BoI warn over phishing scams

Consumers have been urged to be vigilant as a number of new phishing SMS and emails are circulating that purport to come from Irish organisations.

Revenue Commissioners and Bank of Ireland have both advised that communications claiming to come from them were issued by third parties.

Such scams typically seek to get consumers to pass over personal details such as passwords or bank account details.

One official-looking phishing email claiming to have been circulated by Revenue, offered a tax refund of more than €180 for anyone clicking on the attached link.

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Separately, a so-called “smishing” fraud, whereby consumers receive an SMS also asking them to provide key information is also doing the rounds. The text, which claims to be from Bank of Ireland, warns that debit and/or credit cards have been deactivated but can be reactivated by logging in to their account via an attached link.

Both organisations stressed that they had not sent out the alerts to customers and never would.

“Bank of Ireland never requests that customers give full personal log on either over the phone in an SMS or online, in an unsolicited manner. Bank of Ireland also reminds customers that it will never contact them asking them to provide full personal log on details either over the phone or online,” it said.

The bank urged anyone who receives an SMS or email purporting to come from it to not follow any of the instructions but instead to send it to 365security@boimail.com.

Revenue also said it never sends emails requiring customers to send personal information via email, SMS or pop-up windows.

“These scam emails do not issue from Revenue and in no way involve our systems and security,” a spokeswoman for the organisation said.

“Revenue’s internet facing sites are ISO27001 certified. This is a globally recognised Information Security Standard which is independently audited and sets requirements in areas such as information security organisation, data handling, and networks, ensuring that taxpayers’ personal information is secure,” she added.

Other Irish organisations targeted by fraudsters in recent years include Eir, Electric Ireland and Vodafone.

For more information on how to avoid such scams visit www.consumerhelp.ie/scams