Telephone Fraud

• What is vishing?
• How do I protect myself from vishing?
• What should I do if I've been a victim of vishing?

What is vishing?

Vishing is a combination of using voice and phishing in an attempt to scam users into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. Fraudsters usually pretend to be a legitimate business, and trick victims into thinking they need to:

• Provide personal information.
• Provide Banking information such as account, bank card, online banking details and authorisation codes (always read the full text provided with your authorisation code to ensure that you clearly know what the code is validating).
• Take an urgent action, such as logging onto a website or requesting to click on a link provided in a text (this is known as smishing).
• Allow access to a device.

Most common forms of vishing are where fraudsters pretend to be from a Financial Institution, Financial Crime Unit, telephone company, An Post, Revenue etc. Criminals will try any variation if they believe they will get success, even purporting to be the police asking you to transfer your money elsewhere.

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How do I protect myself from vishing?

You should be highly suspicious if you receive a telephone call requesting you to provide online login details, bank card information, PIN, expiration date, bank account details, date of birth, etc.

• Do not provide the requested information. Your Bank will never ask for your account information as they already know the information.
• Be wary of automated calls that request information to be entered via a keypad on your phone.
• Ensure that you hang up the call correctly and your line is not left open.
• Review your recent transaction history.
• If you have already provided your details, contact the PTSB Fraud Department immediately on 01 669 5851. We will cancel your Open24 number and arrange a new one for you.

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