Oireachtas committee criticises State's approach to tackling fraudsters 

An increasingly common way for scammers to dupe people out of their money is through push payment fraud —when a person is tricked to send money from their account to one controlled by a fraudster..

There has been a “siloed” approach to tackling fraudsters in Ireland, resulting in a situation where “it seems like everybody and nobody is responsible at the same time”, an Oireachtas committee has found.

A new report from the Oireachtas finance committee has criticised numerous bodies for their efforts in tackling authorised push payment fraud, an increasingly common way for scammers to dupe people out of their money.

This kind of fraud occurs when a person is tricked to send money from their account to one controlled by a fraudster. 

This can happen through fake ads on social media and other websites, tricking people into paying for a product or service that doesn’t exist.

Figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland show there were 4,576 such fraudulent payments recorded in 2023, to a value of €18.1m.

“Instances of this type of fraud have increased significantly in recent years, in part due to the ease and availability of real-time payments and online banking and purchasing,” committee chair John McGuinness said. 

In addition, the current legislative framework does not set out liability for App Fraud. 

During its hearings on the matter, the committee invited in officials from the Departments of Finance and Justice, the Central Bank, An Garda Síochána, the banks, and online platforms Amazon, Google and Meta.

The committee’s report said the designation of responsibilities is “fractured and disbursed across different entities in the various sectors involved”.

“This is particularly apparent in terms of customer rights and protections and to this end, the committee observes that until publication of the National Economic Crime Strategy, there may be merit in the designation of a lead entity to ensure compliance and accountability across the various bodies involved,” the report said.

It also noted a “lack of uniformity” across financial institutions and online platforms regarding who reports instances of suspicious or fraudulent activity to the gardaí.

Abundance of fraudulent advertising online 

A main issue raised was the abundance of such fraudulent advertising online and the difficulty in reporting such material and getting it taken down.

It said: “This reveals an urgent need for a direct line of communication between financial institutions and online platforms, which at present does not exist.” 

This lack of cooperation across various stakeholders has created a gap “in which fraudsters can operate effectively”, it said.

To help combat this, the finance committee recommended designating a lead entity to ensure accountability for customer rights through all stages, the passing of secondary legislation to facilitate data-sharing across the bodies and the establishment of a shared fraud database.

Mr McGuinness added: “The committee believes that a centrally led, whole-of-system approach is warranted, whereby the State, financial services, social media companies, telecommunications companies, and An Garda Síochána can collaborate to devise appropriate strategies to better share intelligence, implement protections for consumers, and develop barriers to criminal activity.”