The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has issued a stark warning to Irish vacationers, domestically and internationally, to remain vigilant against increasingly sophisticated scams. These fraudulent activities saw a significant boom last year, culminating in close to €100 million robbed from unsuspecting consumers in Ireland, marking a 16% hike from the 2022 figures.
The BPFI emphasises its warning for the upcoming summer season, with holiday reservations and related expenses being a prime focus. Niamh Davenport, head of financial crime at the BPFI, warns that everyone is susceptible to these scams, asserting that bargain holiday deals often serve as bait.
While credit and debit cards afford considerable protection against fraud, Davenport stresses that the complexity and cunning nature portrayed by scammers necessitates constant vigilance. She encourages holiday-goers to exercise caution whilst booking travel, accommodation and handling other holiday-oriented transactions like dining out.
She underscored the threat posed by counterfeit emails and disingenuous social media advertisements promising enticing holiday bargains that often seem too beneficial to be authentic. Davenport has also brought attention to the prevalence of imitative websites selling vacation packages, advising consumers to closely examine the site names, looking for slight deviations from legitimate sites or popular brands, and checking for misspelling errors.
The recent BPFI report on payment fraud reveals that €98.6 million was lost to fraud by Irish individuals last year. Card fraud was responsible for a whopping 95% of deceptive transactions, but this represented only 36% of the total loss, amounting to €35.2 million.
Meanwhile, lesser known fraudulent methods, such as illicit electronic transfers where the scammer gains access to victim’s online banking details, made up just 3% of the total incidents but accounted for a hefty 34%, or €33.8 million, of the total losses.
Fraudulent authorised push payments, a result of criminals duping victims into transferring money straight into their own accounts via deceits like investment or dating cons, comprise merely 1 per cent of all fraudulent transactions. However, the losses from such scams have surged dramatically, exceeding €18 million, indicating a substantial escalation in terms of both quantities and values, in comparison to the figures of 2022.