Bank of Ireland is set to carry out a review after customers have reported being victims of smishing.

Bank of Ireland is ready to carry out a review after many customers in text scam lose their thousands of euros.

Several customers have complained to the bank that they have lost their money as they unknowingly provided their banking details to the fraudsters.

A number of customers have recently spoken to different media in Ireland about their loss of money ranging from €2,000 to more than €10,000.

Customer Marian Lowe said she had lost €3,000 after clicking on a link she had received through a text message purporting to be from Bank of Ireland. Lowe claimed it was not deliberately sharing her bank details with a third party. But she said Bank of Ireland told her she was liable for the money as she shared the details with someone else.

It is quite sad to blame the customers because they weren’t purposely sharing the details. They have been misled by the fraudsters by saying that their bank card has been blocked and that they should click on the link for more details and card replacement.

A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland has said that the banks have taken the matter seriously and that they are doing justice to the customers accordingly.

“Fraudsters send text messages in bulk randomly to mobile phones. They don’t have prior knowledge that particular people are customers of a particular bank. They simply rely on the fact that some people may click on a link and then provide their confidential banking details,” the spokesperson said.

He added that the bank doesn’t have a link to this fraud game because it’s entirely a mobile phone feature where a fraudster can drop a text to a real text message thread from any company. At least from now on, customers should be careful without sharing any of their confidential account details or OTP with any third party.

The spokesperson acknowledged the distress caused to the customers and also stated that they would carry out a review of all the cases affected.

“If any customer would like to bring any further information to us in relation to their case we’d be happy to discuss it with them, and we will also make contact with all customers following the review,” the spokesperson added.

Several customers reported to the bank authorities, and another AIB spokesperson said that if you receive any such text messages further, forward it to [email protected] and just delete them immediately.