THE NUMBER OF people being arrested for fraud across the State has skyrocketed in the last three years with greater awareness of scams being cited as the reason for the jump. 

From 2012, only a handful of people were being arrested for fraud in Ireland. However, these numbers began to spike back in 2019.

A parliamentary question tabled by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín showed the following stats for arrests: 

• 2012 – 22
• 2013 – 17
• 2014 – 30
• 2015 – 20
• 2016- 20
• 2017 – 12
• 2018 – 28
• 2019 – 232
• 2020 – 375
• 2021 – 519
• 2022 – 402 (up to the end of November)

Niamh Davenport, Head of Financial Crime, Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) said one of the key reasons behind the spike is that awareness of fraud is growing. 

She told The Journal: “Fraudsters are being extremely sophisticated and quite clever these days. We’re seeing mainly smishing (text message scams) [claiming to be] from the HSE and An Post.

“The HSE one says that you are a close contact of someone and that you have to pay €5 for antigen tests. The link brings you to a very sophisticated and legitimate looking website but it’s not really the HSE.

“The other one we are seeing a lot [claims to be] from An Post. So, the fraudsters will use what’s going on in the world to try to trick people. This text says that you owe customs after you bought something from the UK. They make it sound very urgent.”

Davenport explained that gardaí and the BPFI work closely together to try to raise awareness of these scams. 

She added that the BFPI is currently working with the communications regulator ComReg to look at solutions to certain issues such as texts from scammers ending up in the same message folder as legitimate texts from An Post. 

New Scam

A relatively new WhatsApp scam has also come to the attention of the BPFI and gardaí. 

The criminals send texts like “Hi mum” to grab the attention of the victim. When the victim believes that they indeed are their child, they ask for some kind of payment which generally the victim obliges assuming it was their son or daughter asking for help. 

Davenport explained: “This has been happening across the world for a few months but it has only started cropping up in Ireland recently. I think with people heading on Christmas nights out, there could be times where you could see how people might fall for it. 

“We would always say to think twice before sending money to a third party.”

I felt like I was missing out when I saw all those other people getting 'Hi Mum' scam texts, but I can happily report now I've received one too. pic.twitter.com/tonSV5ENoh

— NickdMiller ❔ (@NickdMiller) December 12, 2022

Speaking about the ongoing scams, Peadar Tóibín said: “We need to see more investment in specialist training for Gardaí in how to tackle the more elaborate fraud we’re seeing of late.

“”I imagine the majority of victims of these types of scams and frauds are vulnerable, or elderly people. People involved in this type of crime need to be hit hard with the book of law.

“There is also an onus on the phone companies to root out these scammers in a speedy manner. These companies are the platforms on which people are being scammed.”