Scam Phone Calls and Texts

We’ve just been alerted that several members of another credit union contacted them yesterday to advise them they’ve received scam phone calls from what looks like Galway telephone numbers and also text messages with the message in the format below:

CREDIT UNION: A new payee (name in capital letters) has been added to your account. Call us immediately on (prefix 048) if this wasn’t you. 

This follows a warning from Comreg, last week, advising people to avoid answering calls on their phones that use the UK prefix +44 due to a surge in reports of scams.

If you answer one of these calls, an automated voice will try to elicit some personal information from you. Also just by answering one of the +44 phone calls, it is possible that a scammer may add your number to a database, or sell it on to another criminal organisation, resulting in you receiving more calls of a similar nature.