'safe account' scams.

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theresa1

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Spike in 'safe account' scam warning - BOI

Bank of Ireland has issued a warning over what it calls a dramatic increase in reports and cases of attempted so-called 'safe account' scams
www.rte.ie

God forbid I ever fall for a scam but to move money into for example your Revolut account from in this example BOI and then be told basically Revolut is also not safe as well as your BOI account and you must transfer to another 'safe account' it's hard to believe many people falling for the scam.
 
I agree with you. Some one from BOI asks you to transfer money to your Revolut account because it is not safe. That alone should set off warning flags but anyway. Then they tell you that your Revolut account isn't safe and to move the money to another one that is safe. I assume this other account is controlled by the scammer. How the hell would BOI what account is or isn't safe in Revolut.
 
The scammers might (for example) send out 10000 scam texts, they just need one person to fall for it and if they get someone who is perhaps suffering early stage dementia or may be intellectually challenged or who is not that technically "in tune" or perhaps with poor English then they may fall for this. It's a % game for the scammers and sadly there are people out there who do fall for this.

Whilst to me this scam is obvious, there have been a few texts over the years that have made me stop and wonder, and I would consider myself very technically able.
 
Such messages can drop into the thread of a genuine BOI text. Questions posed can be a variant of “Did you login from a new device?”; “Do you recognise this transaction?”; or “A transaction for [value] to [merchant] was declined and your card has been placed on hold” – followed by “if this was not you / if you don’t recognise this / etc please call us back on a given number.

I got a genuine text yesterday from AIB saying "A payment of €x has just been made on your account ending 000 to [named payee]. If you did not make this, contact us immediately"

There are a few other texts from AIB in the same thread going back over the last year e.g. "You have added Apple Pay to your account".

Are the scammers able to send me a text in that thread? If they can do that, I can see how people might believe it genuine.

Once the safe account talk started, the person should twig it's a scam.
 
Unfortunately scammers can send text into a genuine chat. I've got some of these into BOI and AnPost threads for example.
 
That would be well worth emphasising and illustrating in articles on the topic.

I got scammed because the email came from the hotel I had booked and had my details. So I assumed it was genuine.

I was scammed via booking.com

https://www.independent.ie/service/how-furious-consumer-rights-expert-got-snared-by-online-hotel-booking-scammers/a2039501629.html
www.askaboutmoney.com

I don't know if I would have twigged a scam text if it appeared in an AIB thread.
 
Is the common link not Revolut here? BOI fraud prevention usually on the ball, in my experience. I had my BOI account temporarily blocked on one or two occasions circa 2022 due to spending more than usual (due to mental illness, I won't get into the details), it was noticed and account was temporarily blocked, I had ring a number and confirm transactions were or weren't genuine, line by line.
 
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I think Revolut tend to get unfairly blamed in the media. If I go to transfer to a new payee in Revolut I'm asked to confirm I trust the payee. I also had to go through a presentation on fraud once too.
In this scam it looks like they just use another account you have to temporarily hold the cash. They probably then give you a new number to transfer to, which is theirs, but you're led to believe it's yours.
 
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