Over 10 per cent of Irish people have been conned by fraudsters who are increasingly using localised scams to dupe people, according to research carried out by the National Consumer Agency (NCA).
The agency said it had seen growth in the number of emails purporting to be from Irish banks and the Revenue Commissioners, an indication that the scammers had grown more sophisticated, it said.
The research found that 61 per cent of people had been contacted by scammers with nearly one third of those targeted admitting that they had got in touch with the scam artists with a view towards participating.
People aged between 35 and 54 were found to have been the most likely to have been targeted. Some 80 per cent of people in that age bracket claim to be confident in their ability to spot a scam. Those least confident in their ability are the under 24s and over 65s. People aged between 16 and 24 are most likely to respond to a scam, with 22 per cent replying, the survey found.
The foreign lottery scam was the most common scam, with almost one in three consumers targeted. Just under a quarter of those surveyed had been targeted by a premium rate telephone prize scam while one in five had been targeted by a work from home or chain letter scam.
Other common scams identified in the research included phishing scams that look to collect sensitive personal information, unsolicited contact using bogus claim there is a problem with a PC, prize draw/sweepstakes scams, miracle products that don't deliver what they promise and pyramid selling scams.
"We believe that scammers have become more sophisticated in trying to con consumers out of their money and identity," the chief executive of the NCA Ann Fitzgerald said. "So, it is more important than ever for consumers to keep one step ahead of the scammers. It is very easy to be taken in with emails or letters that look legitimate and official but may actually be fake."
She said that over per cent of the population "had been left out of pocket or have given away personal details as a result of being scammed. In these tough economic times consumers need to be extra vigilant about anyone unknown to them offering them an unexpected prize or looking for their personal or financial information."
