Bank of Ireland customers have been warned to be vigilant as a text scam has been discovered.

SMS messages have been sent claiming that access to BOI online banking has been blocked for users - prompting them to click on a link to restore the service.

BOI has this advice for you if you receive a fake or suspicious message:

• Do not click any links or open any attachment

• Do not input any personal / account information even if it appears to be from Bank of Ireland

• Forward the email to 365security@boimail.com immediately

• Then delete it without clicking on any links or attachments

It adds that, "BOI never requests that customers give full personal log on either over the phone in an SMS or online, in an unsolicited manner.

"BOI strongly urges any customer in receipt of such SMS never to click on any link as doing so enables the download of malicious software that has the capacity to collect and compromise personal details and defraud bank accounts."

The bank's customer information has not been accessed by hackers - these massages appear to have been sent to random numbers.

This comes weeks after fake BOI emails were discovered - in that case it claimed that there had been multiple failed attempts to access online accounts.

If customers have any concerns or questions they can contact the bank on 1890 365 365.