Fraudulent website shut down

A fraudulent replica of Bank of Ireland's website has been shut down following an attempt to con €85,000 from a consumer.

The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority yesterday made a fresh warning to consumers to protect their personal financial information following the attempted fraud.

The target of the fraud was informed by e-mail that he had won a lottery and could collect his winnings from a website with the address www.boireland.com, which a spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland said was a high-quality replica of its UK website.

The consumer, who was not a customer of Bank of Ireland, was told he needed to give his account details and personal information number (Pin) in order to transfer the proceeds of a fraudulent bank draft into his own account.

He was also told he must pay 10 per cent of his winnings, about €85,000, in solicitors' fees. The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation was alerted and the website was shut down.

The Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said there was no breach of its online banking security.

This is the third so-called "phishing" attack involving Bank of Ireland in the past two years. Phishing is a type of fraud where e-mails purporting to be from banks and credit card companies are used to glean unauthorised access to consumers' accounts.

The Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said no bank would ever ask for Pin numbers by e-mail or telephone.

The financial regulator warned consumers not to give account details to companies with which they have no dealings.