Almost €85m was defrauded from people in Ireland last year, according to new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland - an increase of 8.8% on 2021.
The latest FraudSMART Payment Fraud Report outlines how card fraud accounted for over 95% of fraudulent payment transactions by volume but only 40% of fraud losses at €33.4m.
It said that most of the increase was driven by online card fraud or "card not present" fraud where a criminal uses the victim's compromised card information to make an online purchase.
The report also highlights the continued rise in value of unauthorised electronic transfers - mainly payments through mobile and online banking.
These accounted for almost 39% of fraud losses at €32.8m, but less than 4% of transaction volumes.
BPFI also noted a 19% decrease in authorised push payment (APP fraud) transactions in 2022 compared to 2021, and APP fraud losses dropped by 41% to €9.9m, the lowest value since the data became available in 2019.
APP fraud can happen when a scammer tricks a consumer into sending money directly from their account to an account which the criminal controls and examples of this include investment scams such as fake cryptocurrency schemes or romance, holiday or accommodation scams.
Niamh Davenport, head of financial crime at the BPFI, said that text message scams are on the increase and there are many different types of text impersonations.
She added that the most common scams are text message scams, as research shows one in two have received impersonation text message scams in the last five months.
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"We are urging people to stay alert. A lot of the time it is organised crime groups behind this to fund criminal activities," she said.
She also suggested that people should be alert on summer holidays as they will be using toll roads they do not normally use.
Ms Davenport said the issue is a global one, adding that people handing over their details is the worst case scenario and clicking the link may not be the issue.
She advised people that if they think they have shared informed or if they are concerned about being a victim, contact the bank first, and then report to An Garda Siochána.
She added that most of the time there are refunds, but it depends on the type of fraud, but the bank will investigate on by a case by case basis and most people get their money back when it comes from a card.
What to do if you receive a suspicious text message:
- Do not respond to messages with personal information.
- Do not click on links in text messages, instead log into your service provider account through the official website or app.
- A bank will never text/email/phone looking for personal information.
- Contact your bank/service provider/employer directly.
- Never use contact details from a text message, always independently verify.
- Always double check before clicking links or attachments in random or unexpected emails or texts and never give away security details such as PINs or passwords to anyone.
