Warning issued to Tipperary people not to divulge personal banking information to fraudsters

Tipperary has seen a massive rise in online fraud of over 500% during the last year.
The huge increase was revealed by Derek Smart, Chief Superintendent for Tipperary at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee.
Chief Superintendent Smart told the meeting that the situation regarding online fraud was not unique to Tipperary as the same picture had emerged across the whole country.
He told members that An Garda Síochána had been on local and national media platforms issuing warnings to people to ignore emails or text messages about their bank accounts.
“This is a very lucrative trade for the people engaging in it,” he said.
Chief Superintendent Smart appealed to the members of the committee to get the message out to the community they served and to warn people of the dangers of interacting with the fraudsters.
Cllr Pat English said he was concerned about the amount of people being targeted by fraudsters.
He said it was very easy for the fraudsters to make a lot of money by simply phoning people.
“ People have to be careful with their personal data. We have to get the message out there,” he said.
Deputy Martin Browne said he was concerned about the increase in online fraud and complimented the gardaí for the amount of work that is being carried out to combat that type of fraud.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Michelle Alyward, Chief Executive Officer of the Tipperary Chamber of Commerce said that there was a lot of concern throughout the county among business owners and the banks about online fraud.
The Chamber of Commerce leader told the meeting that a lot of work needed to be put in at an education level to stop the huge amount of money leaving the country through fraud.
Michelle Alyward said a lot of their members would be interested in learning about steps that could be taken to protect themselves against online fraud.
Pat Slattery, Director of Services with Tipperary County Council, said that a similar initiative could be taken to educate the elderly about online fraud.
He said that the council had designed an age friendly advice site and that he would look at how advice to that age group on online fraud could be incorporated into the site.
Cllr Ger Darcy said that some people were very careless with their personal banking details.
He felt members could do a lot to get out the message to these people that unless they are more careful they are going to be caught by this type of fraud. Cllr Shane Lee said the level of online fraud was concerning and he suggested that Tipperary County Council and An Garda Síochána work together to try and combat that type of fraud taking place in the county.
Chairman Noel Coonan asked Chief Superintendent Smart if he was satisfied with the level of co-operation shown to the gardaí in their efforts to combat this type of crime by the banks and the social media platform providers.
He said full assistance was needed from the banks and the social media providers to combat that type of crime.
Chief Superintendent Smart said that the banks had been very supportive of the national units set up to combat online fraud.
“We need to build on the message to people that your bank is not going to text you,” said Chief Superintendent Smart.
“The people who are engaging in this type of crime are trained to ring you and con you. They are extremely believable, I have seen the texts, it does look like it is coming from a bank.
“If people are suspicious about any message they should not engage.
“They should ring their bank and talk to somebody and don’t use the number that a message has been sent to you with,” the garda chief for Tipperary added at the recent meeting of the JPC in the Premier County.

CHEQUE FRAUD
Online fraud involves crime associated with account take over, business email compromise, card not present, phishing/vishing/smishing, shopping and online auction.
Other types of fraud which includes accommodation fraud, bogus tradesman, cheque fraud, forgery, money laundering and welfare benefit went up 128%.
“Nationally we are losing millions because of this activity,” said Chief Supt Smart.

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