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I’ll be honest, I’m embarrassed writing this column. After I realised the error of my ways, I couldn’t quite believe I had fallen for it.
But the truth is, dear reader, I got scammed.
It began last Saturday morning. I was tired after a few wake-up calls from my kids during the night but my mood improved when I got a text message from Vodafone Ireland saying that I have 4,150 points to claim.
I clicked through the link, and would you believe it, I needed 4,000 points plus €9.99 to claim an Apple Watch.I thought, ‘you know, Dad would love an Apple Watch’.
So I pressed purchase, entered my debit card details and inputted my address for delivery. Yes, even writing this I’m cringing that I didn’t suspect a thing.
In my defence, I have been a Vodafone customer for years, and I totally justified it to myself, thinking it’s about time that they rewarded me for my long-term custom.
It was only the day after, when I told my husband how delighted Dad would be with the new watch that he looked at me sideways and said, “are you sure that wasn’t a scam?”
Sure enough the link had disappeared and when he googled the number, the +992 country code indicated it came from Tajikistan.
My blood ran cold, I rang my bank immediately, and unsurprisingly, they confirmed that there had been eight attempts the day before to extract money from my account.
Thankfully, the suspicious activity had been blocked and I cancelled my card on the spot but I’m still not the better of it, mostly because I feel so stupid.
Danger of scams
In my former role as consumer editor in Irish Country Living, I wrote numerous articles highlighting the dangers of scams and what to look out for.
I am constantly wary of emails in my work inbox, in fear that I’ll be the one who clicks a dodgy link that will run a virus through the whole system.
And, as soon as I get a suspicious phone call, I block the number immediately. Genuinely, I am an individual who is on high alert about scams.
However, the truth is, the more we go on high alert, the smarter these hackers become. And we’re being bombarded both in terms of quantity and quality.
Recent survey results from Compliance Institute, the professional body for compliance professionals found that 74% of people claim to receive spam emails every month while 25% are receiving them on a daily basis. When it comes to text messages, 24% of people receive suspicious messages every week.
It’s how these scams are evolving though that is the most alarming element with hackers upping their game and bypassing traditional protections to exploit people.
Phishing, pronounced as fishing, because these hackers are basically fishing for your information is how I got caught.
Many of us are suspicious of those dubious foreign solicitors that have great news of inheritance from a long-lost relation. But it’s the fake texts or emails that resemble a legitimate business that are far more confusing.
For example, those hackers that tricked me were clever enough to direct a text from my own phone provider, not any of the other companies, so I didn’t even question why Vodafone was contacting me.
And because I am a customer, I figured it was legitimate.
The message read perfectly, the link sent me to a website with Vodafone’s branding and it wasn’t asking for mad money, just €9.99 to cover postage and packaging as my loyalty points covered the Apple Watch.
The truth is that phishing text got me hook, line and sinker.
Looking back though, the signs were there, I just failed to see them in my excitement of getting a watch. The phone number wasn’t Irish and the link wasn’t a Vodafone website.
But the number one tell-tale sign was there all along… if it seems too good to be true, then it is.
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