Customer almost scammed out of 200k, JPC hears

The scourge of cybercrime was highlighted at a recent Roscommon Joint Policing Committee meeting.

Members were told that detections of fraud and economic crime, such as money laundering and people being scammed out of money online, were up 21 per cent this year in the county.

Deputy Denis Naughten told the meeting about his own experiences of cybercrime.

“The Gardaí can only do so much and there is a need to provide the public with the tools regarding how to deal with suspicious activity, such as writing down the registration of a suspicious vehicle. And the same is true of cybercrime,” he said.

He added that following the establishment of the new JPC after the next local election, cybercrime should be specifically focused on, and that an awareness event should be held.

“A lot of the cybercrime taking place at the moment is inadvertent,” he said. He cited the scam texts such as from the scam ‘An Post’ texts seeking a Revenue payment to release a parcel.

“Only a couple of months ago I got caught myself, where I paid for a barber shop in Tennessee. It was very obvious to me that I wasn’t paying for a haircut in Tennessee,” he said with a laugh. “But the amount of hassle this caused me in terms of having to cancel my credit card, direct debits, and all of that. It does cause a lot of difficulty for people.” He called on people to check their card statements when they were issued, and to be wary of any unsolicited text messages.

Cllr Nigel Dineen recounted an instance where a solicitor practice’s email was hacked and scammers sent a fake invoice to a customer, who was buying a house.

“They sent over headed paper (with a different account number) and had been following the emails from the client to the solicitor,” he said. Fortunately, the scam was detected in time as the person could have lost over €200,000.

Cllr Laurence Fallon also told the meeting that people needed to pay attention to cybercrime.

“I got an innocent text about a week ago, saying a transfer had been made from my account and to call the following number,” he said.

Believing it a hoax, he ignored it and “it was only three hours later when I went to use my card, I found it wasn’t working”.

“And if it wasn’t for the vigilance of my bank, God knows how much money would have been taken. How it was done, I don’t know,” the independent councillor said. “We can’t be vigilant enough. I ignored it because I was sure it was a hoax.” He said that the message should go out that “your card is vulnerable, your account is vulnerable, your emails are vulnerable”.

Cllr Marty McDermott said that to see instances of cybercrime was “disappointing”.

“The worst part of it they are targeting the most vulnerable,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said. “It just shows you how low these people are willing to stoop to achieve their objectives.” Superintendent John Fitzgerald said that the National Economic Crime Bureau was in constant contact with banks, advocating for additional security measures to be put in place.

“The banks are mindful of this; it is costing them money too as well as the public money. I think the safeguards are improving, but fraudsters will always find a way. It is just about people being robust in their own personal security around accounts,” he said.

Replying to Cllr Dineen, Superintendent Fitzgerald said that the crime, invoice redirect fraud, was very common.

“This is where they hack into a company’s email account, then make a duplicate with slight changes in it, and then ask you to transfer the money,” he said.

He said that if the fraud is noticed early, it can be stopped, but if it was not noticed the money was gone and irretrievable.