More than a quarter of Irish people have received a telephone call in recent months from scam artists posing as computer security engineers, with 16 per cent of those targeted duped, a new survey has revealed.
Criminals have been calling people at home to tell them they are at risk of a computer security threat.
The scammers tell their victims they are providing free security checks and add authenticity by claiming to represent legitimate companies and using telephone directories to refer to their victims by name.
Once they have tricked their victims into believing they have a problem and that the caller can help, the scammers are believed to run through a range of deception techniques designed to steal money.
To establish the extent of this emerging form of internet fraud, Microsoft surveyed 7,000 computer users in the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada. It found that across all four countries, 15 per cent of people were contacted by scammers but in Ireland the number stood at 26 per cent.
Of those who received a call, 16 per cent of Irish people were deceived into following the scammers' instructions, which ranged from permitting remote access to their computer and downloading software code provided by the criminals to providing credit card information and making a purchase. This compares to 22 per cent of the sample in total.
Some 79 per cent of people who were successfully duped suffered some sort of financial loss.
Some five per cent of Irish people surveyed had money taken from their accounts, compared to 17 per cent in total. A further 25 per cent reported compromised passwords and 9 per cent were victims of identity fraud.
Almost half said they suffered subsequent computer problems.
Across all four countries surveyed, the average amount of money stolen was €596, ranging from €56 in Ireland up to €1,077 in Canada. The average cost of repairing damage caused to computers by the scammers was €1,185 - but just €110 in Ireland.
"The security of software is improving all the time, but at the same time we are seeing cybercriminals increasingly turn to tactics of deception to trick people in order to steal from them," said Orla Hogan, head of communications at Microsoft Ireland. "Criminals have proved once again that their ability to innovate new scams is matched by their ruthless pursuit of our money."
National Consumer Agency director of commerical practices John Shine said education was the best way to prevent people from becoming victims in the first place. " It is encouraging that despite being targetted more, Irish consumers were less likely to be deceived," he said. "It is important that consumers remain vigilant at all times, and in any circumstances, regarding unsolicited offers."
