Irish people reporting another surge in scam phone calls and texts

In the first quarter of this year, the Central Statistics Office reported a 13.7% increase in the number of fraud related offences reported.

People are once again reporting a surge in the number of scams texts and calls being received.

The scams phone calls vary in detail: some appear to be from 085 numbers but are a digit short of a full Irish phone number, some come from a number that closely resembles the person's own, some have automated messages claiming to be from the Department of Social Protection or the Inland Revenue service.

Many people have reported receiving text messages claiming to be from well-known courier services saying that there is a parcel waiting to be collected, a ploy used to play on the rise in online shopping since the beginning of the pandemic.

Worryingly, some of the texts claiming to be from the Bank of Ireland are able to mimic the sender ID so the fraudulent text will appear in a chain of legitimate texts from the bank.

"They will try to scare you into clicking a link in the text by saying something like your account is being blocked or a payment has been made from your account," said Paul O'Brien, Bank of Ireland security.

"Don't worry what it says in the text, you will keep your account completely safe by not clicking the link and by never giving anyone your online banking PINs or codes."

In the first quarter of this year, the Central Statistics Office reported a 13.7% increase in the number of fraud related offences reported.

According to an EU survey conducted earlier this year, Irish people are the second most likely citizens of the member states to be victims of fraudulent phone calls.

It was announced this week that a security system to tackle text fraud is to be launched in Ireland.

Called the Ireland SMS SenderID Protection Registry, it will operate like a firewall and block messages from fraudsters pretending to represent major corporations like banks.

"There are criminal gangs operating overseas and they dial numbers at random and when people answer them they come up with stories. Sometimes they are very amateurish, sometimes the stories are more plausible," ComReg Commissioner Jeremy Godfrey told RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland.

The advice given to people by ComReg is not to answer calls from unrecognised numbers, let the call go to voicemail if you have it and then if you feel that it is a reputable company that has left you a message, you can then call them back on their publicly available number.

People are also advised not to give out any personal information, transfer money or provide any of your bank account details to someone over the phone.

Do not click on links in texts or email unless you are certain it is coming from an official company. If you are unsure, contact the company via it's official customer service number.

If you have received a fraudulent phone call, block the number from being able to contact you again.

Anyone who believes they have been the victim of fraud should contact their local Garda station as soon as possible.