Fraudsters stole nearly €45m from Irish consumers through a variety of scams in just six months.
The startling figure comes as more consumers turn towards online shopping ahead of Christmas and as the busy Black Friday sale period kicks off.
The number of instances where scammers duped people out of money via electronic transfer or direct debit rose by 205% in the second half of last year, with most kinds of fraud up in 2021, according to an awareness initiative led by the Irish banking sector.
Fraudsmart, from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, said fraudsters stole nearly €45m from consumers through a variety of scams in the second half of 2021. This was an overall increase of 37% on the previous year.
The BPFI is now warning households and online shoppers to be wary of scammers trying to fool them, in particular as people look to bag a bargain when it comes to Black Friday sales or finding the perfect Christmas gift.
BPFI head of financial crime Niamh Davenport said: “We know that fraudsters are continuously updating and adapting their tactics and tools.
“As well as scam texts, phone calls, and emails, scammers have developed a range of techniques to convince online users to disclose key personal or financial information.”
Debit and credit card fraud, including at ATMs, rose 18.5% to hit €14.5m, the highest level since 2017.
Fraudsmart said this increase was driven by online card fraud or “card not present”, where a fraudster uses the victim’s…
