A third arrest has been made by gardaí investigating distraction-based phone thefts targeting people in Dublin, which have led to a series of bank frauds.
The man was detained for questioning on Sunday on the suspicion that he has been involved in an ongoing scam that gardaí have been concerned about for about a year.
Two adult teenagers and a 21-year-old man have been arrested over their alleged role in the scam and the investigation is continuing. All three are scheduled to appear before the courts in Dublin in the coming weeks.
The scam involves mostly male victims being preyed upon, usually while intoxicated. While detectives are concerned about the scam, they said it was not new and that in most cases the sums being stolen are modest. However, gardaí are worried more intoxicated people will be targeted over the Christmas and new year period when the night-time economy is at its peak.
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“In some cases victims are more or less befriended in a pub or on the street, maybe by somebody pretending to be concerned for them and offering to help to get them home,” said one source.
He added that the scammers have often asked victims to open Google Maps and show them where they need to go. When the victim reached for their phone and unlocked it, the person targeting them watched on in an attempt to see their PIN being inputted into the phone.
“And once they have the PIN, the next step is to get the phone somehow, often taking it while [the victims] are distracted and without the victim realising the phone is gone or that they’ve handed it over because they’re intoxicated,” said the source.
In a number of cases victims had been duped into sitting into cars they believed were taxis, before the driver asked the victim to point to their destination on Google Maps.
In at least one case a victim handed his phone to a driver, in a car he believed was a taxi, so he could look at the destination on Google Maps.
However, the driver then dropped the phone in the front passenger footwell, saying he was unable to bend down and pick it up due to injury. When the victim stepped out of the car, intending to open the front door and retrieve the phone, the car drove off. The victim later had cash withdrawn from his bank account.
Sources stressed that vehicles purporting to be taxis were used in only a small number of cases and insisted it was not “a taxi-based scam” as people have been targeted in multiple locations and situations.
Gardaí said because banking and money transfer apps were now so common, once fraudsters had learned a victim’s PIN and stolen their phone, in many cases they were able to transfer the victim’s money into accounts that they controlled. The fact that many people used the same code for their phone and banking apps made them especially vulnerable.
“With something like Revolut, they can just send money from one mobile phone number of another,” said a garda familiar with the scam, adding those behind the scams could use a “burner”, untraceable, phone which meant tracking them was difficult.
