'Do not engage': Dept of Social Protection warns of scam phone calls and texts
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The Department of Social Protection has warned the public of a scam seeking personal information.
The scam sees fraudulent phone calls and text messages being made, claiming to be from the department, and seeking information such as bank account details and PPS numbers.
The department said that staff “never ask for such details by phone or text”.
The department has advised people not to engage with the caller and “do not share any part of your PPS number, bank account details or any other personal information with them”.
“If you have provided any such information to a caller that you believe to be a scam call or scam text, please contact the Gardaí immediately,” a statement revealed.
"We urge you to be extremely cautious if you receive such a call or text message."
The department also called on people to use official departmental websites.
It comes as gardaí have identified a number of high-profile scams in recent weeks.
Provisional data from the Garda Pulse system indicates that there were 163 such incidents reported from April 1 to April 20 of this year - a fivefold increase on the amount reported during the same period last year.
Gardaí have urged the public to be alert to these scams.
Speaking about the recent scams, Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau told people not to engage.
“The golden rule is do not engage with people who contact you out of the blue looking for your personal information - plain and simple.
“Do not engage, do not call them back, do not click links, do not download apps, do not arrange to meet them, and do not give them your hard-earned money.
“Never, ever give away personal data like pins, codes, passwords, PPS numbers or DOBs,” he added.