I second the amendment proposed by my colleague, Senator Mark Daly, to the Order of Business. During the years I have used the platform of the second House of the Oireachtas to inform people of and alert them to the issue of e-mail spamming and its insidious practice. Sadly, it has reared its ugly head again in the past week. This time the potential victims are customers of Irish Water. An e-mail, a copy of which I received, is being sent, as is the practice, to customers and non-customers alike. The e-mails have become increasingly sophisticated. I am sure all Members of the House are familiar with banking spam e-mails, which look like the real thing. This one looks like the real thing too and an unsuspecting consumer would be inclined to respond to the request to log on with his or her details. The senders then get the person's bank account details and clear it out. I am sure the Leader will join me in condemning this practice and highlighting to all those who are computer literate and use e-mail that no institution - financial or otherwise - such as Irish Water uses this type of e-mail to contact or communicate with its customers.

Therefore, it is a scam. It is the old cliché in the newspaper business, namely, "if in doubt, leave it out". People should not touch it or click onto it but should simply delete it. It is an insidious practice but sadly, people will be caught by it. There are regular instances of people who succumb to this type of scamming and as a result have lost considerable sums of money, as well as enduring the emotional anguish that surrounds it. The Leader should take this opportunity to agree with me and to highlight this insidious practice. I hope that will at least save some potential victims from losing all their money.

I support Senator Marie Mooney in what he just said. All Members regularly receive such e-mail scams. Recently, I have been getting one such scam e-mail consistently which claims to be notification from the Revenue Commissioners that a refund is due to me.

The Senator is a lucky man.

They originate in the United Kingdom, which goes to show how little they know about the Irish tax system.