DECEPTIVE INSPECTORS...
■ Student is conned out of €6k as shameless swindlers target vulnerable migrants ■ Scammers now posing as cops ‘calling to warn about fraud’...then fleecing victims
SCAMMERS who pose as gardai and civil servants are contacting foreigners to help them avoid a fake hacking plot — only to then trick the victims out of their hard- earned cash.
The Star has learned that an Indian student in a Dublin university was duped out of more than €5,800 last week – when he was called by someone claiming to be a state official.
The caller told the computer student that the government had learned he had watched a website that is supposedly banned in America – and that hackers were also aware of that.
He warned the student that because he had visited the website, the hackers were now able to access his bank account.
The bogus government official then duped the student into giving over his bank account details in India – and stole just short of €6,000 from it.
The alarm was only raised when the victim’s mother, who was a joint holder of his account, saw the money had been stolen and contacted Indian police. They have since launched a criminal investigation.
Spoof
Sources said gardai were aware of other cases where foreigners in Ireland fall prey to similar scams.
One source told The Star: “Irish people who would know how the State or the Garda works would not fall for these scams.
“But non- nationals are more vulnerable.
“They might not be native English speakers and are unsure of how the system works.
“They are easy pickings for scammers who pretend t hey are authority figures.
“It is a major problem now.”
The scam is just the latest in a line of stings – in which people receive calls from bogus members of the Revenue Commissioners demanding settlement of fake tax bills.
Many victims are foreign nationals who are duped into paying thousands of euro to settle the false debts. Gardai and the Revenue are now warning people that the calls are scams.
There has been a surge in such stings in recent months – with scammers even using real Garda station phone numbers to fool people into thinking the con artists are legitimate.
The force has received reports of people receiving calls from real genuine Garda stations numbers – that turn out to be scam calls In one case, a woman received a call from the number attributed to Garda HQ in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, only for it to be a recorded scam message when she answered the phone.
Sources have confirmed the scam is now widespread.
It’s believed the scammers use a technique called spoofing – where they provide false details to phone companies abroad and set the Garda number, or any other legitimate number, to appear on the recipient’s screen when the call comes in to the victim.
Trick
They hope to fool people into thinking they are being called by real gardai.
It is just the latest in a long line of spoof calls being carried out by scammers – who also pretend to be calling from civil service departments including the Revenue Commissioner and other government offices.