Irish people conned out of €8.6m by fraudsters in first half of last year, new figures show
Scheme Turned A Scam' Inheritance Appeared 'an €70,000 Legitimate In Incident, Received Woman Who A Out Elaborate Some To Be Invested One 50s What Had In Her But To In
Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated and convincing in their attempts to trick the Irish public, as new figures show a 26% jump in scams in the first half of last year.
Fraudsmart, an initiative of the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland, said victims were conned out of €8.6m in the first six months of 2023 through authorised push payment fraud, involving online and mobile banking transfers.
“With today’s figures showing a large increase in the numbers of fraudulent scams in the first half of 2023, we are warning consumers to be extra vigilant in particular for investment scams,” BPFI head of financial crime Niamh Davenport said.
"This follows a notable spike seen by our members in more highly convincing types of these scams, which are now using the names and branding of well-recognised banks and investment firms to draw in their victims."
Investment scams are particularly targeted at those in the over-55 age bracket, with frauds starting from about €5,000 but stretching to many multiples of this.
In one incident, a woman in her 50s who had received some inheritance invested €70,000 in what appeared to be a legitimate scheme.
Ms Davenport said: “She did her own background research on the company and the ‘agent’ she was dealing with through a search engine and felt confident that it was an authentic product and so went ahead with the payment.
“Unfortunately, it turned out to be an elaborate scam. This example highlights the level of sophistication involved in some of these operations as large networks of criminals are creating increasingly convincing and deceptive ways of tricking consumers.”
Social media users have in recent times been bombarded with paid-for videos showing deepfakes of popular Irish figures such as Ryan Tubridy and Anne Doyle in a bid to dupe people.
Fraudsmart said promises of high returns online can often lead people to share information that can be used to con them, as it urged people to pause for thought and also to report it to their bank and gardaí if they believe they have fallen for a scam.
Michael Kavanagh, chief executive of the Compliance Institute, said it was incumbent on all of us to educate ourselves as much as possible on the dangers of cybercrime and learn how to protect ourselves.
“While the legislation around third-party data and GDPR is growing and companies are under increasing regulatory obligations as to how they treat and keep customer data, hackers and cybercriminals are continuously improving their practices, constantly finding new ways of stealing material and outsmarting even the most advanced of security systems,” he said.
“Many people don’t realise that by inputting their email address into a site whilst shopping or perusing the internet, they are effectively giving their permission to receive spam on a regular basis."