‘You’ve won a prize!’- fraudsters target Kilkenny people in new text scam
By COLIN BARTLEY
AN Post and the gardai have warned Kilkenny people to watch out for a new text scam.
The latest scam involved fraudsters contacting people via their mobile phone claiming to be from An Post, informing them they have won a prize. The message, which claims to be from An Post, asks people to click on the message ends with the term ‘ADIDAS’.
However, gardai have urged anyone who recieves such a text to delete it straight away as it is another example of a ‘phishing scam’ aimed at securing victims’ personal information.
An Post also took to social media to warn customers to ignore any ‘phishing’ texts that appear to come from them.
It said in a statement: “We are aware of these scam messages and are currently working to stop them.
“Please do not click any links & delete the text as these do not originate from An Post. Scammers can spoof the SMS Alpha Tag to say “An Post” so it goes into the An Post SMS thread on your phone.”
‘Phishing’ is a cybercrime that tries to lure in its target via an email or text message in which it pretends to be a legitimate institution. It then asks people to provide personal data such as I.D and date of birth, banking and credit card details, and passwords.
