Public warned to be on guard against online fraud

Roscommon Gardaí are warning the public of the dangers of online fraud as they currently investigate a series of incidents across the county where people have been scammed out of thousands of euro.

In these cases, cybercriminals have used a variety of methods from texts, WhatsApp message and fake websites to steal from customers’ bank accounts.

Fraud crime in Ireland, which has been driven by banking and online fraud, continues to be a ongoing challenge for Gardaí in terms of trying to apprehend these faceless fraudsters, who could be located anywhere in the world.

According to recent research from the communications regulator, ComReg, the scale of cybercrime in Ireland is truly staggering. In 2022, there was 365,000 cases of fraudulent scams – that’s an average of 1,000 incidents per day.

More than 5,000 businesses have also said they had been the victim of fraud arising from scam calls or texts in the last year.

Another recent piece of research carried out on behalf of Revolut by Dynata revealed that almost half of consumers who were contacted said they had personally experienced fraud in the last 12 months.

Not surprisingly, Gardaí are asking people to always be mindful of any suspicious activity when it comes to requests for personal or banking details.

Following the incidents of online fraud in Roscommon recently, local Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Damian Bartley has advised people to immediately notify their bank of any suspicious transactions, and to never share personal banking details, pin numbers or passwords with unknown persons online, by text, SMS, phone.

Sergeant Bartley also warned against downloading or installing an app or file from an unknown or suspicious source, and recommended that people undertake regular monitoring of their bank accounts and credit card spending.