Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated and convincing in their attempts to trick the Irish public, as new figures showed a 26% jump in scams in the first half of last year.
Fraudsmart, an initiative of the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI), said that victims were conned out of €8.6m in the first six months of 2023 through the authorised push payment fraud, involving online and mobile bank transfers.
"With today's figures showing a large increase in the number of fraudulent scams in the first half of 2023, we are warning customers 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 names and branding of well-recognised banks adnd investment firms to draw in their victims."
"Investment scams are particularly targeted at those in the over-55 age bracket with frauds starting from around €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. Miss 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 scale networks of criminals are creating increasingly convincing and deceptive ways of tricking customers."
Social Media users have been in recent times been bombarded with paid-for videos showing deepfakes for popular Irish figures such as Ryan Tubridy and Anne Doyle in a bid to dupe people. Fraudsmart said that it 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 gardai if they believe they have fallen for a scam.
Compliance Institute Chief Executive Michael Kavanagh said that it's incumbent upon all of us to educate ourselves as much a possible on the dangers of cybercrime and to 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 event 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."
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