Department tenders for €250k 'cyber crime disruption' service to tackle scammers

The Department of Social Protection has previously warned people of scam messages or phone calls being sent to people’s phones purporting to be from the department. File photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The Department of Social Protection is set to spend up to €250,000 on a “cyber crime disruption” service aimed at preventing people from falling victim to scammers who try to impersonate the department.

In a invitation to tender, the department said that the service is “necessary to protect our customers and our reputation from fraudsters”.

“Threats of this type are constantly being detected and taken down but may reappear shortly after under a different name,” it said.

“The department also has a duty to ensure that it does everything it can to protect customer data and taking down fraudulent sites which aim to impersonate the department.” 

Through the variety of payments it issues and the areas it funds, this department spends around €26bn a year.

Each week, around 1.4 million people receive some form of social welfare payment in the State and it says its services "touch in one way or another on the lives of every person in the state".

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At the same time, frauds under numerous guises are surging in Ireland in recent years. Recent garda figures have suggested a spike in fraud cases reported in this jurisdiction.

The Department of Social Protection has previously warned people of scam messages or phone calls being sent to people’s phones purporting to be from the department.

Earlier this year, it warned of a particular scam containing a link to claim a payment of €350. The fraudsters rely on the fact that some people may click on the link and then provide their confidential social welfare information, it said.

“The Department of Social Protection’s staff will never ask you for your bank details if they should have reason to call you over the phone,” it said.

“These are sophisticated scams. We urge our customers to be extremely cautious if they receive a call or a text message and to ensure that they are using official departmental websites.” 

It even warned that scammers are continuing to make calls claiming to be an official from the department and can appear to be coming from its helpline number.

Cyber crime disruption service

As part of this new clampdown, it wants this new solution to be able to crack down on fraudsters in a variety of ways.

It includes “proactive phishing detection and disruption capabilities” to shut down scams, as well as an ability to automatically identify fraudulent websites and take action.

The system must integrate with the department’s own systems and also monitor and report on alerts of scam websites as well as how successful they are in having them taken down.

The department added that the successful contractor must have “proven experience with internet service providers, registrars, hosting companies and law enforcement”.

As part of wider plans to try to curb the impact of scammers on the Irish public, the communications regulator Comreg recently launched a registry for businesses that send text messages to customers.

From July, texts from businesses not on the registry are supposed to have been delivered with a “likely scam” warning attached. From October, these texts will be blocked completely.