Fraud Awareness

It is important that you are on your guard for attempts of fraudulent activity on your credit or debit card. It has come to our attention that a number of phone calls claiming to be Weir & Sons are in circulation. Upon answering the phone, the caller will claim that they are the head of security ringing from Weir & Sons. The caller will claim that either your 'nephew' or 'grandson' are in store attempting to buy a Rolex on your card. The caller will say that they have your card and have called the Gardaí to arrest the person claiming to be your ‘nephew’ or ‘grandson’. They will then advise you to ring your bank to cancel your credit or debit card for your own safety.

 The caller may not be asking for your personal credit or debit card details YET, however they are causing much inconvenience, stress and doubt over the safety of one’s card. The caller is not only contacting customers, but non customers also. If you receive a call like this, it is NOT Weir & Sons. It is an illegitimate anonymous caller acting as a member of staff. These phone calls are NOT genuine, they are a fraudulent attempt to misrepresent Weir & Sons and harass the recipient. Although, the caller has not directly yet asked for credit card details, it is not unlikely that they will begin to do so. This is known as a warm up call, where no information is discussed at first. The recipients guard is now lowered so when they receive a subsequent call, which refers back to the initial one, the caller will move on to asking for personal and banking details.

Here are some safety tips on how to reduce your risk of fraudulent banking activity:

It is important for our customers to know that Weir & Sons will NEVER call or email our customers for personal banking details. As an attempt to obtain personal banking details, some fraudsters target people with unsolicited phone calls, emails or text messages. Treat unexpected phone calls, emails and texts with caution. Fraudsters may already have basic information about you in their possession e.g. your name, address and account details. Do not assume a caller is genuine because they have access to these details or claim to be a legitimate organisation. If you receive a phone call, similar to one of the above, you may be led into a false sense of security by the seemingly legitimate caller. The caller may ask for personal information such as your credit, debit card or online banking details to verify a payment or your bank account. NEVER disclose any pin, card or online banking details even if the caller claims to be your bank or the Gardaí. End the call promptly, and contact your bank by calling the number on the back of your payment card. You should NEVER give out account or personal information over the phone or in response to a mailing unless you initiated the communication yourself or it is a verified source. If you receive a suspicious or unexpected call, then always verify the caller by contacting your bank or if they are claiming to be a business, such as ourselves, then verify the number in the phonebook or on their official website. If you receive an email claiming to renew or verify your Weir & Sons or bank account, do not respond to any email with details, do not ring the phone number they may have provided or  do not click on any attachments or links. These emails are not from Weir and Sons, they are a fraudulent attempt to obtain your credit or debit card details. You may be able to identify a fraudulent email through informal wording, poor grammar and spelling, and links or forms to fill in your details. If you believe that you have been a victim of fraud then you must report it to your bank.