More than 260,000 credit and debit cards frauds, totalling €22 million in value, hit Irish people last year, leading gardai to warn people about the dangers of online shopping.
As part of Fraud Awareness Week gardai have said online transaction frauds were up 50pc in 2020 compared to 2019.
And with a large increase in online shopping due to Covid restrictions the amount of money being spent online is being taken advantage of by fraudsters who are constantly assessing what is in demand and what they can make money on most quickly.
Detective Inspector Mel Smyth of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) said there are three main types of victims in online fraud - a person who buys something and does not receive it, a person who sells something but gets no payment, and a financial institution when compromised cards or bank accounts are used to make online purchases.
Gardai have issued advice on how to avoid online shopping fraud after Irish consumers lost €22 million in credit and debit card fraud last year. Onlin.
Detective Inspector Mel Smyth of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) said there are three main types of victims in online fraud - a person who buys something and does not receive it, a person who sells something but gets no payment, and a financial institution when compromised cards or bank accounts are used to make online purchases.
“The biggest risk is in a person-to-person situation where you contact someone through social media or an online selling site and all you have is a phone number and a voice at the end of the phone,” he said.
“There is always a risk there in both buying and selling. And what looks like an Irish phone number might not actually be Irish at all but could be managed from abroad and made to look Irish.
5 things to watch this weekend â 5 to 7 March
Corruption in high places, life on the frontier and a rediscovered Scottish caper â what are you watching this weekend?
5 March 2021
City Hall (2020)
Whereâs it on? Online at the Glasgow Film Festival at 1pm on Friday and for 72 hours afterwards
Showing no signs of slowing down at 91, American documentary master Frederick Wiseman has kept up the astonishing work rate of a film every year or two since the late 1960s. Known for his epic surveys of institutions and communities, from Central Park to the National Gallery, his latest is a typically expansive and finely grained study of Bostonâs city government. Pushing five hours in length, itâs the second longest film heâs ever made (only 1989âs formidable Near Death is longer). But itâs also the equal of anything heâs done in its accumulation of moments, meetings and details that, taken together, offer as lucid a record of the everyda