The cost of scam texts and calls to Irish society is conservatively estimated at more than €300 million a year according to the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, which has outlined a plan to clampdown on fraudulent communications.
The costs break down as €115m due to scam SMS texts and €187m due to scam calls.
New research from ComReg shows that in 2022 there were around 365,000 cases of fraudulent scams and up to 89 million annoying or irritating communications.
There were 31 million distressing communications and more than 5,000 businesses were the victims of fraud after receiving scam calls and texts.
"These scams are a blight on society and cause significant financial and economic damage to all sectors of society including consumers, business, and public bodies," ComReg said in a statement.
"Scams also diminish the trust placed by consumers and businesses in calls and SMS, thereby undermining the benefits of such services," the regulator said.
To combat scams, ComReg is proposing to require operators to implement a number of technical interventions such as call blocking to stop fraudsters abroad spoofing Irish geographic numbers.
ComReg is also proposing protected number lists, an SMS ID protection registry and a voice firewall to block spam calls.
The regulator said that plans for an SMS scam filter would require legislative change and that it is currently engaging with its parent department, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in taking this forward.
"The overall benefit of the package of interventions, if implemented, would be in the order of €1.5 billion over the coming seven years," ComReg said.
"ComReg notes that there is a compromise here between privacy and fraud prevention but considers the measures to be proportionate given it is aimed at stopping this very serious fraud," the regulator said.
It has opened a consultation process on the proposed fraud interventions which runs until 28 July.
