ALERT: Kilkenny homeowners targeted in new ‘broadband upgrade’ scam

By COLIN BARTLEY

FRAUDSTERS are targetting Kilkenny homeowners in a new phone scam.

The fraudsters have been calling people locally on their landlines, trying to get them to disclose their personal data.

Homes across Kilkenny and the South East region have been targeted in recent days by callers who purport to be from the mobile compnay Eir.

The scammers are calling from the phone number 0766701303 saying they are agents from EIR and gives an address of an office in Citywest, Dublin.

The scammer says they noticed the homeowners broadband speed has been very slow in recent days, and they want to upgrade it for free.

To upgrade it, they ask the homeowner to log onto a computer and to access a website.

The ‘Remote Access Scam’ them attempts to gain access to personal details on the homeowners computer by following the same path as the phone line into your computer.

Once on the internet, they ask the person to open Google Chrome and type an address into search bar.

This is not a speed test but a website that would open the way for the cybercriminal to get into your computer.

A spokesperson for EIR told KilkennyNow.ie: “We would never contact customers about broadband speeds or ask them to anything like this over the phone.”