A FERMANAGH woman has been left in shock after she narrowly escaped falling into the trap of a “very, very convincing” scammer.
On Friday afternoon, Sonia Rooney from Enniskillen received a phone call from a man claiming he was from the Bank of Ireland and there had been suspicious activity on her card.
The caller was able to tell Sonia that her last card had been scammed and read out the full card number, expiry date and security code, the man went on to list the first eight numbers of Sonia’s current card.
The man then told Sonia that there had been large amounts of money leaving her account from shops such as Argos, but that he had blocked the card and no more money would leave her account, he even told her to check her banking app to see that the card had been stopped.
It wasn’t until the caller asked Sonia for the last eight digits of her card number, the expiry date and security code of her current card so that he could set up a security programme that Sonia began to have doubts in her mind.
“It was when I told him I wasn’t very comfortable he told me he understood due to my last card being scammed, but I just kept thinking I shouldn’t give my number out and that’s when his attitude changed, he got a bit narky so I told him I would call in to my local branch and he hung up,” Sonia explained.
Sonia then went to her local branch to be sure it was a scammer and that money wasn’t leaving her account.
“The man at the Bank of Ireland told me that you should not give any details out and if you say i’ll ring you back or even hang up, the person from the bank will not mind, normally I wouldn’t fall for them things on the phone but I was convinced because he was able to tell me my card details,” she said.
Sonia gave advice to anyone who finds themselves in the same situation.
“Even if they tell you your details, don’t give out any card details or information about your banking out over the phone, they could give you as much information as they need and the only thing they need is that last couple of numbers from you and that’s it gone, the man from the bank told me they would never ask you for your full card number, or the security code at the back of the card.”
ScamwiseNI, an awareness campaign has been put together by the Policing Board, the PSNI and the Department of Justice in response to the rising number of scams being reported.
They have created a four step acronym to help people avoid being scammed, Seems too good to be true, Contacted out of the blue, Asked for personal details, Money requested.
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