The public are being warned to “think before you click” as gardaí report a 370% increase in fraud phone calls, texts and emails last year, compared to 2020.
Gardaí say people should be wary of unsolicited phone calls, emails and texts as vishing (fraud phone calls), smishing (fraud texts) and phishing (fraud emails) are becoming increasingly prevalent, while overall fraud offences increased by 111% in 2021.
They warn that the most prevalent frauds purport to be from a person’s bank, or other financial institution, where they are invited to click a link which leads to a cloned website, subsequently looking for the person’s PIN.
Personal data such as address, date of birth, or PPS number, can also be requested as part of online scams to steal personal or financial information, gardaí said.
People are warned never give away personal data such as bank account details, PIN numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, one time codes, PPS numbers and eircodes.
Gardaí have said that victims of fraud need to change their passwords immediately and report the matter to their bank, as well as to An Garda Síochána.
They cited a case in May 2020, in which gardaí received a report following a fraudulent bank text alert scam that an injured party had €10,000 removed from their account.
The fraud was reported quickly and detectives working with the bank were able to reimburse the injured…
