Test article 6

Your phone rings.

It’s a call you were not expecting from your bank or your credit card provider.

The person phoning tells you that they work for the security or the fraud team which sounds plausible enough.

They tell you that they’ve noticed some strange transactions on your account.

Maybe they tell you about them to make them sound convincing.

The transactions usually turn out to be for things you obviously didn’t buy or for services in countries you’ve no connection to.

The caller says that they want to help you. They can get the transactions stopped.

But they need to act fast.

So you have only a short time to respond (a typical tactic of fraudsters).

All they need is for you to confirm some of your account or card details so that they can sort this out for you right away…

What should you do?

Hang up, this is a fraudster calling.

Bank of Ireland may sometimes phone you about genuine suspicious transactions (it’s far more usual for us to text you) but we will never ask for your account details.

We might ask you to confirm that you are the accountholder by saying ‘am I speaking to John Smith?’

If we ask you about a suspicious transaction, we usually ask simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.

If you do give fraudsters your bank details, contact Bank of Ireland right away using the details below or get in touch with your credit card company using their published contact details.

Never use a phone number that the caller gives you.

And you might want to use a different phone from the one the fraudster called you on (especially if you call the bank or your credit card company).