Bank scammers told Limerick journalist her son needed money abroad
The scam callers targeted the Limerick Leader journalist and pretended to be from AIB and Western Union
WE HAVE all heard the advice from banks and gardaí – don’t share personal or financial details with anyone.
On a Wednesday afternoon, this writer, Sandra Quinn, received a phone call from a woman with an Irish name who said she was calling from the AIB anti-fraud team.
The caller said she was senior security manager with AIB and gave a name for herself.
She knew my name, she didn’t ask for any bank details or to verify any information.
She told me that my card had been used twice, once for an Ebay purchase of €249, which they cancelled and another for a €1,100 transfer to Western Union in Bangladesh and that my card was now frozen.
She said they were going to have some difficulty cancelling the Western Union transaction as the money had already come from my account.
There was no activity on my account, which I was checking online while she spoke to me. I was told she would contact Western Union and they would ring me.
Moments later, a man called, said he was with Western Union, that AIB had contacted him and he said that a Peter Quinn, who said he was my son, had withdrawn €1,100 from my account and that because the money was gone, there was nothing they could do. He told me that they don’t have that much cash on site in their local kiosk, but that they could give me €300 now and the rest in three months’ time.
I rang my husband who went into our local AIB branch, but they couldn’t tell him anything.
The first woman rang back then checking that Western Union had spoken to me and assuring me that everything was ok.
Again, I had not been asked for any details. All of the calls came from a blocked number, but the final call was from a UK number.
I rang the number on the back of my bank card, spoke to an AIB staff member who confirmed that this was a very elaborate scam and that they were likely gaining my trust before asking for details or organising a transfer to take money from my account.
He reported the UK number to their fraud team, advised me to never give out details and not to engage with anyone who says they are from the bank, as the bank will not call customers.