You would almost feel sorry for the scam artists who chose Irish Water as their phishing bait. Bogus promises of tax back or fake offers of cheap electricity or the lure of free holidays somewhere lovely are one thing, but how many of us would race to give the State’s most toxic utility more information?
The scammers hoped there would be loads of us when they targeted Irish Water customers as recently as last week with a hoax email seeking confidential details. The email looked pretty legit, as emails of this nature are designed to do. It claimed Irish Water was performing annual account maintenance and needed more information from recipients, who were asked to follow links that would take them to a dodgy site.
Although the utility being used as bait was new, the phishing scam is anything but. It is among the most common frauds around, and you really should not allow yourself to be caught out. A good rule of thumb is to ignore all emails seeking personal or financial data: no reputable company will ever ask for it.
Source: Fake Irish Water emails and six other common online scams
