The message arrives like any other. It looks like it is from the bank, it carries the bank's name, and it asks for one thing: click the link and confirm your details.

NLB is warning that precisely these fake SMS messages are circulating, abusing the bank's name and brand to harvest personal and banking data. Recipients are asked to enter or confirm personal details, payment card information, or data linked to their electronic and mobile banking.

One rule that settles everything

The bank has issued a sentence worth memorising: "NLB will never ask you for a password, PIN or other confidential data via an SMS link."

That is not advice with caveats. It is an absolute rule, and that is exactly why it is useful. If a message asks for a password or a PIN via a link - however convincing it looks, whichever logo it carries, however urgent it sounds - that message is not from the bank. Full stop.

What this scam is called

This is what is known as "smishing" - an attempt to reach sensitive data through an SMS and a fake link, data that can then be abused. The same logic as phishing by email, only on a phone, where people read faster and pay less attention.

That is exactly why SMS works better than email for the fraudsters. You open an email on a computer, with time to read the sender's address. You open a text on the bus, in three seconds, while thinking about something else.

What this means in practice

NLB advises people to check every message and its source carefully before sharing any data at all.

The safest approach is simpler than checking: do not click a link in a message, ever. If you think the bank really is contacting you, open the app yourself or call the number you already know - not the number in the message.

This warning is a good thing to have. The question left over is how many people read the warning, and how many only read the message that reached them before it.