The internet is alive with scams, cons and frauds | #whatsapp | #lovescams | #phonescams


I WAS popular last week.

I got a text message from an unknown number warning me, ‘You haven’t paid your charges, visit eflow-toll-deadline.com or an additional fine will be sent to your home’.

That was strange, since I hadn’t been driving the car outside Cobh for the previous three months. Nobody else had driven my car to Dublin either, so I just deleted the message.

Then I got another text. This time it was purporting to be from Amazon, and they wanted me to contact them in relation to a payment I needed to make to continue with my order.

Another mystery because I had no order, so I deleted that message too.

Both of these texts looked official so the scammers who do this for a living have upped their game.

Then I got a phone call from a guy – I can’t remember who he said he was representing, but he basically told me there was a problem and I needed to switch on my laptop to fix it. He would talk me through the steps I needed to take, and everything would be fine.

I played along with him for a while and eventually I asked him if his family was proud of how he was earning a crust? 

I asked him if he was bothered by the fact that he was stealing money from innocent victims, but he wasn’t backing down.

He didn’t appear to be embarrassed either. He was very confident and gave as good as he got before he finally hung up.

He was hoping I would follow his instructions which would give him access to my computer so he could monitor my online transactions. Once he was in, he would have my passwords, credit card numbers, pin numbers, etc. That would give him some free shopping until the fraud was detected.

This kind of activity is very common and has added two important words to our vocabulary – phishing and smishing.

Phishing is a cybercrime where people are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution, to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. The information is then used to access important accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

Smishing is a combination of the words ‘SMS’ and ‘phishing’, and is a scam where fraudsters use mobile phone text messages to trick you into opening a malicious attachment or link.

Typically, the text messages claim to come from a reputable organisation such as your bank, card issuer, a service provider like your mobile phone company, or even a government department.

They’re very convincing so we need to be wary of these people.

They’re targeting WhatsApp users too with the ‘friend in need’ confidence trick. There are a couple of variations, but usually a parent gets a message from a supposed family member with “Hello Mam” or “Hello Dad”.

The pretend child will say that they are texting from a new mobile number as their phone was lost or damaged, and will ask for money to either purchase a new phone, or to pay a bill.

Another version is a message from a ‘friend’ abroad who needs funds urgently and asks for help. The criminal supplies bank details for payment and collects the money.

The general advice is not to send money anywhere until you’re sure of where it’s going and until the identity of the person receiving it can be verified.

Don’t click on any suspicious links in emails or text messages and never respond to suspicious messages that direct you to send money or change your bank details.

Don’t give any personal details, bank account details or card information and contact your local Garda station if you believe you are a victim of a cyber-crime.

We have something else to worry about now.

Criminals are targeting smart phone users in a caper known as ‘shoulder surfing’. The criminals look over people’s shoulders as they enter their phone passcode and then steal their phones.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ‘shoulder-surfing’ gangs were targeting people in bars in U.S cities and London. They unlock passwords stored on the device, allowing them access to financial apps.

Even those looking for companionship on the internet aren’t safe. While checking the garda website for advice on dealing with fraudsters, I came across a piece advising people to beware of Romance Scams.

People searching for a partner on the internet often believe they have met their perfect match, but the other person could be a scammer using a fake profile to build the relationship. They slowly gain the victim’s trust before eventually asking for money.

One Irish woman was showered with expensive gifts before she was asked to invest in her suitor’s business. Over a 13-month period, the woman gave the romance fraudster €48,000. She initially delayed reporting the fraud to Gardaí as she was married.

These characters prey on emotionally vulnerable victims and have only one thing in mind and it’s not romance.

Desiree Boltos, the ‘Sweetheart Swindler’, was a serial romance scammer. She was sent to prison in America for scamming elderly people by pretending to be in love with them.

Over a five-year period, she conned five men and one woman out of $1.6 million.

Romance seekers might be safer with face-to-face meetings at the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival.

The event is more than 165 years old and completely different from online dating services.

Those looking for love can meet Ireland’s only traditional matchmaker in the Matchmaker Bar, where legend says if you touch his ‘lucky book’ with both hands, you’ll be married in six months!

They’ve no time for that auld internet stuff there.



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