Thirty-one cases of romance fraud, costing victims more than €800,000, were reported to gardaí between January and May of this year.
ardaí have warned the public to be aware of romance scams, as detectives continue to investigate a “large number” of money laundering offences.
23 women and 8 men reported the the 31 cases to gardaí.
The average age of the injured parties who are women is 44 and the average age for men is 47 years.
The youngest victim was 27 and the oldest was 69.
Gardaí have confirmed that in all cases except one, the victims encountered the suspect over a dating app or through social media.
In total, the 31 cases reported the loss of €812,715.
In almost every case, the money was transferred to accounts outside Ireland or to bitcoin wallets.
“This is an international crime type and victims are encountered and exploited online and deceived into transferring money abroad.
“This is done to ensure the suspects can cash out and to frustrate investigations.
“An Garda Síochána believe that these crimes are under reported,” a garda statement said.
In September 2021, gardaí received a request for assistance from the Hungarian Police through Interpol.
They were investigating a case of romance fraud where a female was deceived into sending $4,000 (€3,800) to fraudulent account.
Investigations by the Hungarian Police identified that the money was credited to an Irish bank account.
The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) identified who the holder of the account was and an analysis of the account showed that between September 2020 and October 2021, there were 46 suspicious credits into this bank account from 12 different people in Germany, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland and the UK.
The total amount credited in this 12-month period was €109,880.28 – 11 women and one man sent money to the account holder.
Gardaí said once the credit is made to the account, the funds are immediately withdrawn in cash, transferred electronically and used in point-of-sale transactions in successive days – leaving very little in the account until the next credit is made.
It is suspected that each of the 12 people who credited money to his account are the victims of romance fraud.
Gardaí said the account holder was arrested in recent weeks and the investigation continues.
The garda statement added: “This particular fraud is enabled via online dating sites or other social media by fraudsters who will provide the victims with well-prepared stories designed to deceive.
“The victims develop online relationships with the fraudsters who use fake identities, photographs and life stories. Inevitably, the fraudster will ask their victim for money. The fraudster will continue to ask for money until the victim has no more money to give or realise they are being deceived.
“This crime often leaves vulnerable people with a feeling of hurt and mistrust in addition to their financial loss. In some recent cases we have seen the criminals targeting people with learning difficulties.”
The GNECB has issued the following advice people using dating sites or who are in communication with a person they never met over social media:
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