A popular Irish influencer is warning the public to be on the lookout for a convincing phone scam, after falling victim to it herself.
Cáoileánn Conway lost 100 pounds to the con artists before she realised and alerted her bank.
1 in 2 people is targeted with spam calls or texts every month.
A survey by the Compliance Institute also found those aged 18 to 34 were the most affected by spam texts.
https://www.tiktok.com/@caoileannconway/video/7218978011519913221
The Scam
Last week Cáoileánn says she received a call from an individual claiming to be from her bank. The caller said they were from the fraud department and there was unusual activity on her account.
In a TikTok video, the Sports Dietitian says she was initially sceptical but was persuaded to hand over her information by the "convincing" scammers.
According to Cáoileánn, the fraudster sent her an email from a Santander email address and even had access to all her previous transactions.
She says this along with a persuasive message including a "one-time passcode" was enough to fool her.
“He was British and he put me on hold, had the ‘help music’ and everything,” Cáoileánn revealed. “He asked for the middle eight digits of my bank card - not the first four or last four - in my head, it was alright because everything up until now had felt so real.”
The scammer also asked for her CVC code and told her he would reset the login details for her mobile banking app as a precaution.
Cáoileánn was then locked out of her online banking and over 140 euro was taken from her account.
Luckily, her quick response meant Santander was able to retrieve the funds.
It is reported that these particular fraudsters take small amounts of cash out of a victim's account over a period of time to avoid detection.
