Teenagers arrested as part of invoice fraud investigation

Invoice redirect fraud involves fraudsters sending an email to a business purporting to be from another business and requesting the immediate payment of an invoice or transfer of fund

Yesterday, five men in Cork, Tipperary, Roscommon and Westmeath were arrested as part of Operation Skein and Operation BOXPLOT

Gardaí investigating an international fraud ring have arrested two teenagers in Co Longford.

The pair, a man and a woman aged in their late teens, were arrested as part of Operation Skein, an investigation into international BEC (business email compromise) invoice-redirect fraud being committed from Ireland, including the laundering of the proceeds through accounts here.

Invoice redirect fraud or business email compromise (BEC) fraud involves fraudsters sending an email to a business purporting to be from another business, such as a supplier, and requesting the immediate payment of an invoice or transfer of fund.

Yesterday, five men in Cork, Tipperary, Roscommon and Westmeath were arrested as part of Operation Skein and Operation BOXPLOT — an initiative targeting a criminal organisation based in the North Cork area.

This brings to 19 the number of persons arrested as part of Operation Skein, while five have been arrested under Operation BOXPLOT.

Three of the men have been released without charge and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Two remain in Garda custody at this time.

Investigations are ongoing.