Gardaí in Donegal have issued a warning over a number of scam messages which have come to light recently.
The alerts relate to false messages which appear to be from Revenue and the Bank of Ireland. However, the messages are not from official sources and attempt to direct the receiver to click on a link which may lead to phishing scams.
The advice from Gardaí is to never click the link on such messages. People are being asked to share the images to make others aware of how the scams appear.
Advice from An Garda Siochana on Revenue texts says: “The Revenue Commissioners do not sent tax rebate notices by email or text unless you have completed an online application and will never ask you to provide your logon or account details in an email. Don’t respond, don’t provide any personal or account details and report the correspondence to Revenue and your local Garda Station.”
Similarly, the advice on text messages and emails from Banks is: “This is probably a phishing email which is an attempt to obtain your personal account or logon details which can then be used fraudulently or sold online. Your Bank or other financial institution will not ask you to provide logon details in an email. Similarly companies will not ask for personal details online in an unsolicited email. If there is a link in the email, hover the mouse over the link and see where it will actually take you. Report these scams to the Bank or your provider and to your local Garda Station.”
More info on Cyber Crime is available on: https://www.garda.ie/en/Crime/Cyber-crime/I-ve-been-caught-out-by-an-online-scam-What-should-I-do-.html