Gardaí have issued a warning to the public on an alleged ‘vishing’ scam to obtain bank information.
‘Vishing’ is the use of telephone by criminals entities to deceive people into providing personal information.
In summary, a well known retailer in Ireland, has received numerous calls from members of the public stating that they received a telephone call to their landline from an individual purporting to be a "security manager" from the store.
The member of the public alleges that they were informed by the “Security Manager” that there was an attempted fraudulent use of their Debit or Credit Card in the store. Over 30 members of the public have made contact with the retailer concerned.
In some cases the member of the public has been asked to provide personal financial details to the “security manager”. If they decline, the “Security Manager” advises the member of the public to either make contact with their financial institution or alternatively contact the gardaí.
Using the same landline on which they received the call from the “Security Manager”, the customer then hangs up and assumes they are phoning either the bank or the gardaí as instructed.
However the fraudulent caller has not terminated the original call and the call remains active resulting in the victim disclosing their personal banking details to the fraudster or an accomplice who has remained on the line.
This has resulted in individuals sharing their personal information with fraudsters and in some cases complying with requests to transfer money out of their accounts.