ESET Ireland warns about the latest phishing scam flooding Irish mailboxes, pretending it’s from Irish Water asking for ‘account maintenance’. With people expecting Irish Water refunds, many may be tempted to click.
Irish Water’s official website states ‘The legislation to refund Domestic Water Charges has now passed and refunds have begun.’ So the cybercriminals are wasting no time in attempting to get a piece of the pie for themselves.
The scam arrives as an email, titled ‘Your Irish Water Account – Action required’ and asks the user to ‘Log in now to My Water and complete your online account maintenance.’
Clicking on the link redirects victims to a faked Irish Water website…
…where a pop-up opens immediately, requiring the victims to ‘update’ their Credit / Debit card information…
…and enter their 3D Secure Password:
After handing their payment card details over to the cybercriminals for further abuse, the victims are transferred back to the real Irish Water website, as if nothing has happened.
Irish Water have a part of their website dedicated to spotting these fake emails, where they give some good tips on how to identify and how to correctly react to such emails and where to contact them with additional questions.
ESET Ireland recommends not clicking on any links that arrive in unsolicited emails, as well as checking official websites of institutions, organisations and banks for their security tips, as they’re usually aware of scams abusing their name and offer good advice on staying safe.
by Urban Schrott and Ciaran McHale, ESET Ireland
ESET Ireland 
One thought on “Phishing scam cashing in on Irish Water refunds”