Financial scammers and fraudsters are becoming more active and ingenious. One AIB customers describes receiving a text message purporting to be from his bank claiming he had not confirmed terms and conditions. He clicked on the link in the message and inputted some personal details. He was then phoned by a person claiming to be from AIB who asked him to share a code from his card reader, which he did.
“Before I picked up the phone, I was on the back foot... they had my details after I’d clicked on the link,” he recalls. “He reassured me he was from AIB and was even able to tell me what kind of phone I had. I went to bed that night knowing something wasn’t right. So, I contacted AIB’s fraud team and was told first the fraudsters had taken €2,500 and set up a standing order for €5,000. There were payments to Airbnb and Revolut. Thankfully AIB was able to refund the money. Do not click on any link in a text that looks like it’s from AIB. These guys are very smart and are mirroring AIB numbers through texts and calls. Hang up and call the real AIB number.”
Andrew McFarlane, AIB’s chief operating officer, advises people that bad actors cannot defraud their accounts as long as they don’t have the security details. “At AIB, we’re empowering our customers with information to protect them from getting defrauded,” he says. “We want to help ensure our customers don’t fall prey to these fraudsters. We’re reminding our customers to hang up, don’t answer and to delete, don’t click. We also ask customers never to share card reader codes or one-time passwords.”
AIB has seen a strong increase in digitally active customers over the last number of years, with 1.96 million customers active on digital channels for the first six months of this year, up from 1.85 million at the end of 2021.
While customer account security has improved through strong customer authentication, which adds extra layers of security to electronic payments, scamming attempts are on the rise.
The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland FraudSMART Monitor 2021 report found that 68 per cent of consumers reported being targeted by some form of impersonation scam in the 12 months to July 2021. When asked who the fraudster was pretending to be, more than half (56 per cent) said a Government department or agency including the Revenue Commissioners or Garda, while 36 per cent said the fraudster was pretending to be from a bank.
“Customers need to be alert to fraud at all times,” says McFarlane. “Fraudsters are deploying increasingly complex ways of stealing money from customers. We constantly work with gardaí to identify trends and provide them with information. And we regularly update the latest frauds to our AIB security centre to warn and protect customers.”
AIB’s dedicated fraud team urges customers to contact them as soon as possible if they feel they may be a victim of a scam. Early contact enables the bank to endeavour to prevent a fraudulent payment from processing, and in many cases secure a positive outcome for customers. Unfortunately, in some cases it may be too late, and the payment will already have been received, and removed, by the fraudster. The bank deals sympathetically with customers on a case-by-case basis and has a strong record in preventing fraud.
AIB also has a vulnerable customer unit in place to support elderly and vulnerable customers who may have concerns that they could be victims of financial abuse.
McFarlane strongly advises customers to be on the alert and to protect themselves. “Never click on links in texts and emails, never enter online banking and card details into websites and never provide codes from your card reader to people and sites purporting to be the bank. Always go to AIB’s official website and log in to internet banking from there or use your mobile banking app or ring our call centres at the contact numbers on our website to get the right advice.”
He reiterates the fact that AIB will not ask for account and security details. “The most important thing to remember is that AIB will never ask you for your details, so never give someone your details. And always remain vigilant.”