Scam numbers rise in North Cork
Gardai in North Cork have issued an urgent warning to people after two victims lost money in recent frauds.
Sergeant John Kelly, Crime Prevention Officer based in Fermoy, said that one woman lost hundreds of euro in a scam.
He said that people with difficult credit histories find themselves targeted by sophisticated fraudsters who are now cloning websites.
“They are being targeted by scammers who appear to be operating through a legitimate website of a financial institution but really have cloned the website. They will receive calls from what appears to be a Dublin number but is a spoof number and they are talking to a fraudster outside the country,” he said.
“A lot of people are in the last chance saloon with their credit history and instead of rebuilding their credit history with a credit union through micro financing, they are taking on loans with online sites.
“They maybe looking for a €10,000 loan but end up paying over €1,000 to get it which is a fraud,” he said.
Sgt Kelly said the gardai are also seeing scams around parcel deliveries whereby people are receiving texts from scammers purporting to be a legitimate courier requesting extra payment.
“The last time checked we had two or three burglaries in recent months but frauds are way up. The good news is that credit card companies are introducing higher authentication including two factor authentication to fight this,” he added.
As part of the Garda Fraud Week, the force has released statistics about victims of text message fraud and it shows a worrying trend.
Criminals are using the crime known by multiple names - smishing is phone text based, vishing is email based or phishing which is a phone call - to trick victims into giving over banking details.
Gardai said the texts normally appear to be from a reputable company or State agency.
There were 45 cases of phishing/vishing/ smishing frauds in the first week of February 2021, compared to 13 for the same period in 2019/ 2020. Gardai have seen an 80% increase in reported crimes in 2020/2019. More than €640,000 has been stolen in the reported crimes in 2020 with €53,000 stolen in one case alone.
NOT ACCURATE
Public opinion leads many to believe it is a fraud that targets the elderly who are not as aware of online security but that trend is not accurate.
Gardai say that of the 45 cases in February, 19 people were under the age of 50 while 26 were over the age of 50-years.
The youngest victim was 17-years-old while the oldest was 88-yearsold - 52% were women while there were 48% men targeted.
“An Garda Síochána wish to advice members of the public of smishing/vishing/phishing fraud. The most prevalent types are purporting to be from your bank or other financial institution, where you are invited to click a link, which brings you to a cloned website, subsequently looking for your pin. They may also seek other personal data. Address, date of birth, pps numbers etc.
“Brexit and the Covid 19 pandemic has added a new dimension also, the business model of the fraudster changes with the social environment.
“The increase in online shopping and deliveries has also created greater opportunities for the fraudster,” a garda spokesman said.
The gardai have said that people should not click on a link of an unsolicited text, never give away personal data like PIN number, card numbers, passwords, one time codes.
Gardai said that banks would never request a customer return a card to the bank. They also advised people to be very wary of cold calls – just because the number looks Irish does not mean it is – fraudsters use VOIP numbers (Voice over IP number).
“If people are concerned, hang up and ring your bank/service provider from a number advertised in the phone book or on your bill. If you are expecting a delivery and receive such a text, be very careful. Contact the delivery service.
“Gardaí would advise people not to respond to such texts, to make screenshots of the texts received and delete them and to report it to the bank or relevant company and local Garda station,” the spokesman added.