New measures have been introduced to provide consumers with greater protection against cross-border scams and fraud, writes Paul Cullen.
An EU regulation targeting rogue traders who prey on consumers across European borders came into force in Ireland over the new year weekend.
Among the problems the Consumer Protection Co-operation will tackle are e-mail scams and illegal prize draws, misleading advertising and pressure selling, phone scams based in other EU countries and timeshare and holiday club rogue traders.
Many of these forms of international scams are on the increase, largely thanks to the huge growth in the internet.
While consumers are already protected against scams originating in Ireland, there is often little that can be done to pursue rogue traders operating in other EU states.
Now, however, under the EU regulation, a network of national enforcement bodies is being established with powers to work together across the EU.
In Ireland the designated liaison office is the National Consumer Agency (NCA).
National enforcement bodies will be required to help each other by exchanging information and co-operating on cross-border cases. Previously, wide differences in the structures and methods of enforcement have hampered prosecutions.
For the first time, Irish authorities will have the power to seek and obtain enforcement action from their European counterparts on cross-border infringements of consumer law.
The new measures will also make it easier to pursue fraudsters operating across the Border.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin welcomed the coming into force of the new measure on December 29th: "This is an important all-Ireland commitment to protect consumers on both sides of the Border from being ripped off".
The regulation will apply to cross-border breaches of consumer laws only and not to domestic transactions. According to the NCA, consumers in Ireland are "bombarded" by scams. These range from pyramid schemes and dodgy prize draws to increasingly sophisticated criminals using online banking cons such as "phishing".
In foreign lottery scams, people are asked to send an "administration fee" or provide bank details in order to receive a large cash prize. However, their money is taken and the prize never arrives.
Other scams involve the use of premium rate phone numbers to extract money from gullible consumers. Meanwhile, rip-off holiday clubs sold in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands have long been the subject of warnings from Irish consumer bodies.
The NCA's advice to consumers is to be sceptical if a scheme sounds too good to be true.