DUBLIN: Bank of Ireland customers have been warned not to act on a hoax text message that claims their online access has been frozen and prompts them to click a link in order to unlock it. The banks says the SMS-based mobile variant of phishing or Smishing is from scammers, and should be deleted. The company says its systems have not been hacked and customer data remains secure.
The message, reportedly received by a number of BoI customers, states: “Your BOI online access has been locked for security reasons.” It then prompts the user to confirm their details by clicking on a bit.ly link. In such cases, clicking on the link usually either brings the user to a page where they are asked to submit personal data, or causes malicious malware to be downloaded.The bank says because the message is coming from scammers outside the bank, it has no idea how many customers may have received it.
