Scams and fraud continue - in all forms

While text and email scams are now we l l - documented, in the last number of weeks one local in the area who contacted TheAvondhu received a quaint scam, in the form of a letter. The letter, from a supposed legal firm in Madrid, Spain, promised the recipient a reward of €6,750,000 from a dead relative he had never heard of. For just 35% of the funds, this legal firm promised to get the remaining funds to the man, and all they require is “cooperation and absolute confidentiality” in order to guarantee success.

The address and name of the Irish receiver of the letter were correct, and the legal firm in Spain does appear to exist - with a phone number and email given to the recipient in order to follow up. However, the letter is a cheap copy, the grammar is poor in places, and in any case the likelihood of anyone having a dead relative with over €6 million in the bank is likely wishful thinking.

However, people can and do fall for such fraudulent schemes, and the use of a postal letter rather than email or text may cause some people to let down their guard.

AN POST

One of the most prevalent scams doing the rounds is a message from An Post concerning customs charges. It’s effective because online ordering is so common. An Post do send messages about customs payments, but these message will not include a link for payment.

The message, via text or email, asks the receiver to simply click on the link to pay the customs charges. However, it should be noted that An Post will never send a message containing a link for payment.

If you get a genuine message from An Post regarding customs payments, it will ask you to leave the message and separately sign into the An Post website to make the payment. Furthermore, a few days after one receives a genuine message, they will receive a postcard from An Post detailing the customs charges.

Another popular scam under the guise of An Post is one used for private sales. One ‘ almost-victim’ told TheAvondhu how he put a bed for sale on a website. The buyer told him they had paid via An Post and sent a very genuine looking link to ‘prove’ it. All he needed to do was click on the link to receive the money, and a courier would collect the bed. He thought something was suspicious when the amount didn’t match up, and went all the way to call the fake ‘An Post’ before realising something wasn’t right.

An Post don’t provide any service that handles payments via third-party sales.

VICTIMS

There is a fallacy that the victims of scams or fraud are older people. An Australian report found that more 35-44 year olds reported being scammed than 45-64 year olds. The ‘bed-victim’ above is only 38 years old and very internet-savvy. According to him, he said that “Millennials will click on any old link!”

According to the CSO, between 2020 and 2021 reports of fraud and deception went up by 116%.