Warnings have been issued about an e-mail scam in circulation that is targeting Irish credit union members.
The e-mail, purporting to be from the Irish League of Credit Unions Account Review Department, comes with the heading “Security Alert” or “Unauthorised access to your account”.
It says that because of fears of potential fraud, the recipient needs to submit some personal details, including their debit card number, through a form on a website for verification.
It warns that account access will be limited “until the issue has been resolved” and threatens unsuspecting consumers that unless the form is completed their accounts may be closed.
The scam is an example of a type of e-mail fraud known as "phishing" that is rife throughout the financial sector.
"This is very targeted and the people behind it have obviously done their homework," Peter Oakes of the financial regulation firm Compliance Ireland told The Irish Times. "They know for instance that credit unions don't issue credit cards, only debit cards, and they have put a lot of work into recreating the look and feel of the credit union site."
He said he had tracked registration details of the website first to California and ultimately to an individual in Melbourne, but he said the information provided to the website-hosting companies by the scammers would be completely bogus and that they could be operating from any part of the world.
The credit union group last night issued a statement warning of the “bogus, illegal request for confidential information” and said its members should not open the mail and reminded people never to provide personal information in response to such e-mails.
