Decision by Bank of Ireland to refund customers affected by ‘smishing’ scam welcome
– Awareness campaign needed on text message fraud
The decision by Bank of Ireland to refund customers affected by the ‘smishing’ scam is welcome but the Government needs to launch a comprehensive public awareness campaign targeting text message fraud according to Labour Finance Spokesperson Ged Nash T.D.
The Louth and East Meath Deputy said:
“I welcome this decision by Bank of Ireland to refund customers affected by this despicable scam.
“‘Smishing’ scams have become all too common and many innocent people have lost significant financial sums through them.
“Bank of Ireland’s initial response to this scam, whereby they blamed their customers because they had inadvertently provided their personal banking details to the fraudsters was despicable and the people affected by this scam should not have had to wait this long for Bank of Ireland to refund them.
“I would also call on the government and the Minister for Finance to launch a comprehensive awareness campaign around text message scams.
“We have seen a worrying number of different financial and other scams in recent years where fraudsters have extracted personal details and money from unwitting victims by text message.
“We have even had incidences where these fraudsters were impersonating Government Departments.
“The Government also needs to liaise with the telecoms sector to stamp this unacceptable criminality out. Text message scamming is a very common tactic used by criminals and the Government must take it seriously.”