Bank of Ireland Credit Card Security: FAIL

Martina Skelly — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:31:00 +0000

I woke up this morning to a text message that had been sent just after midnight. It was sent from a UK number and read

Bank of Ireland CreditCard Security – Please call us asap@ 01 488 5466

Classic phishing scam I thought. I phoned the number to investigate further. The Dublin number transferred me through to a UK call centre, where a lady on the end of the phone wanted to take my credit card numbers. I told her that I was not giving them, that it was an irregular way of contacting people and not secure. I then phoned the telephone number on the back of my credit card to report this scam. I thought it was clever timing , hit people over Easter, Banks will be closed on Monday and phone-lines closed for an extended period, meaning customers can’t double check or phone their local branches.

However, the person I spoke to in Bank of Ireland told me that that’s how the Security Department contact people out of hours – they text them. I was pretty incredulous.

ME: “They text customers, and ask them to phone a number that is not published anywhere, that diverts them to a UK number whereby they are asked to give all their credit card details over the phone”

BOI: “Yes”

ME: “Is that not exactly how phishing scams operate, is that not exactly the sort of communication you are forever impressing upon customers not to respond to?”

BOI: “You could always phone the number on the back of your card”

ME: “It was an unpublished number given in the text”

BOI: “You can mention that to the security dept if you have concerns”

And there you have it. That is how the Bank of Ireland Credit Card Security team operates. Would be really hard for a scammer to emulate that don’t you think.

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Bank of Ireland Credit Card Security: FAIL