AN GARDA Síochána have issued a warning to the public after it confirmed that it recorded a 370% increase in fishing (fraud phone calls), smishing (fraud texts) and phishing (fraud emails) in 2021 compared to 2020.
Overall, fraud offences have increased by 111% in the same period.
The most prevalent frauds are purporting to be from banks or other financial institution, where people are invited to click a link which brings them to a cloned website, subsequently looking for sensitive information such as PINs, An Garda Síochána said.
They may also seek other personal data such as addresses, date of birth and PPS numbers.
An Garda Síochána is warning the public to never give away personal data such as bank account details, PIN numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, one time codes, PPS numbers and Eircodes.
By way of an example, in May 2020 Gardaí in Killarney received a report following a fraudulent Bank Text Alert Scam that an injured party had €10,000 removed from their account.
The fraud was reported quickly and An Garda Síochána working with the Bank were able to reimburse the €10,000. An investigation commenced under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 with the Garda identifying a suspect bank account based in Co. Meath. The holder of that bank account has been convicted before Trim Circuit Court in January 2022.
Gardaí are advising the public to be wary of cold phone calls and to never act on advice received from a cold caller.
They also suggest being wary of such texts even if they are contained within the thread of previous genuine texts from banks.
Phishing emails can also look official, so Gardaí say to make sure it’s legitimate before opening an attachment.
