Fraudsters target Bank of Ireland online customers

BANK of Ireland customers have been urged to ignore an e-mail from fraudsters trying to find their private account details.

The latest scam was reported to the bank yesterday morning by customers who had received the message.

It directed them to a website posing as Bank of Ireland’s personal banking online service, www.365online.com, where they are asked to input personal banking information.

A bank spokesperson said the fraudulent site has been closed down but said customers should ignore this or similar e-mails.

The spokesperson said: “The Bank has discovered that a number of our customers and non-customers have received e-mails directing them to a website posing as its personal banking online service, www.365online.com. The email directs the recipient to a website where they are asked to input personal banking information.

“We had a scam like this a few weeks ago, but we got the alert out and very few people actually logged on to the site,” the spokesperson said.

The customers of a number of other financial institutions have also been targeted by similar scams, by sending unsolicited e-mails to individuals asking them to log on to a website and provide banking details.

Bank of Ireland notified the gardaí of this latest scam and the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation are currently investigating the matter.

“There is a huge amount of attempted fraud going on through the internet. Our advice for the public is to ignore these kind of e-mails and to ring your bank if a message purports to be from them,” a garda spokesperson said.

It is not known if the fraudsters trying to obtain details from Irish bank customers originated here or overseas.

Bank of Ireland’s 365online internet banking service has around 450,000 registered users.

But the spokesperson said it never requests customer information in the manner used by the fraudsters.

“Under no circumstance should anyone logon to this spurious site or enter any details.

“None of Bank of Ireland’s systems have been compromised and there has been no security breach of any Bank of Ireland website,” the bank’s spokesperson said.

Any customer who responded to one of these e-mails should contact Bank of Ireland immediately at 1890 365 365.