In the past year, Irish people were hit by over 260,000 credit and debit card frauds, totalling £18.87m in value
Ireland is the second most scammed country in Europe with a value of almost €8,000 (£6,863) being defrauded for every 1,000 inhabitants, according to new research.
Irish people were hit by more than 260,000 credit and debit card frauds, totalling €22m (£18.87m) in value during the last year, and gardaí have said online transaction frauds rose 50pc in 2020 compared to 2019.
Only the UK has a higher level of impact from financial fraud by criminals engaged in investment scams, redirection fraud, impersonation fraud and other activity where organised gangs are using phone and internet systems to access people’s bank accounts.
Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands are the other countries making up the top 10 most scammed in Europe.
Uswitch.com, a UK-based comparison and switching service, carried out the research using data collected from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the UK Finance Fraud Report 2021.
Scamming is now so prevalent as a lucrative growing modern crime phenomenon that gardaí last week reiterated their advice to the public on how to avoid being defrauded.
On Wednesday, they said that despite increased publicity around the activities of fraudsters, people continue to fall victim to scams on a daily basis.
In recent days, gardaí have received reports nationwide including reports from counties Donegal, Monaghan, Dublin and Kilkenny relating to automated scam phone calls, a Garda spokesman said. The recipient is called and advised via a recorded message that An Garda Síochána is investigating them in relation to suspicious activity linked to their PPS number.
In order to rectify the situation, the recipient is then advised to press a number to speak to someone further in relation to the matter. These scam calls are mainly coming from numbers with the 087 prefix, he added.