Gardai in Sligo have confirmed this afternoon that they have been alerted by people in the area who have received hoax phone calls from callers pretending to be from the Department of Social Protection.
Sligo gardai say the calls came from an 083 mobile number.
Earlier today, the Department of Social Protection has issued a warning about what it described as a ‘sophisticated’ phone scam that’s pretending to be from government officials.
It says people from all walks of life are getting these calls or texts, which have the sole focus of attempting to steal personal information.
Officials say the Department of Social Protection will never ring a person out of the blue to request a PPS Number or bank details.
Minister Heather Humphreys explains how it works:
