The most common scams that led to money being stolen from people this year started with text messages sent to phones, according to new research published by AIB.
Scams that see criminals pretending to be bank officials, investment scams and romance fraud were also commonly reported, the data says.
The research published on Thursday morning suggests 57 per cent of all reported payment fraud originated with so-called smishing attacks. These see fraudsters send convincing texts impersonating banks, delivery services or government agencies, and urging recipients to click links, call numbers or share codes.
The next most common acts of fraud are safe account scams which see fraudsters pose as bank staff, claiming they will help move money from a supposedly compromised account to a safe one. Once the money is transferred by the unsuspecting victim it disappears and is rarely seen again.
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Next among the most common scams by frequency, on 8 per cent, are investment scams. AIB pointed out that while case volumes are lower, losses here can be significantly higher. Scammers promise high returns through fake investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency, bonds or precious metals.
Romance scams make up 2 per cent of recorded online fraud and involve fraudsters creating fake online identities to build emotional relationships and trick victims into sending money and/or personal information.
In money mule recruitment scams the criminals recruit individuals to move stolen funds through their accounts, often disguised as “easy money” jobs.
The final commonly deployed fraud identified by AIB is the shopping scam which sees fraudsters set up cloned websites or social media shops offering non-existent goods.
On guard
In the run-up to Christmas, AIB urged people to be on their guard against scammers who prey on busy people becoming distracted.
“Fraudsters are constantly adapting their methods, making scams harder to spot than ever before,” said AIB’s head of financial crime Mary McHale. “The best defence is awareness – knowing what to look for. Taking a moment to, wait a sec, double check before acting can make all the difference. Ask yourself could this be a scam.
“You may be busy this festive season, but always take the time to check. It could save you tens of thousands of euro, and could be the difference between a merry Christmas and a broke one.”
She said the bank was “continuously investing to enhance our fraud monitoring systems” in response to new and existing fraud trends and said it worked “closely with industry stakeholders including telecommunications companies, the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI), and the Garda to detect and report fraud trends, as it’s only by communicating and co-ordinating across the whole of society that together we can be effective in combating these criminals”.
