Christmas fraud alert to Mayo retail sector

RETAILERS across Mayo have been placed on alert over an escalation in fraud and sophisticated scams over the busy Christmas period.

The advice was issued during the course of a fraud advice forum hosted by Sergeant Hugh O'Donnell, a specialist in fraud detection.

Those who attended the session were warned that small businesses are more at risk to scams than multi-nationals.

A number of local retailers revealed how they had been ripped off by fraudsters because of the rise in crimes perpetrated from both inside and outside the country via the internet and telecommunications.

Despite the public being aware of such deception in order to gain access to bank accounts, victims continue to be misled by unscrupulous high-tech thieves.

Castlebar Community Garda Michael Toland, one of the organisers of the event, said adequate measures need to be taken by all business owners to ensure they combat the threat of such crimes.

“The greater the level of awareness about the issue, the more likely the challenge of preventing fraud will be met.

“I believe many of the retailers who spoke to Sergeant O'Donnell will be in a better position to address this issue, which has cost many retailers very dearly throughout the country,” he said.

An Garda Síochána recently issued an appeal to all business owners to review their business phone systems.

Hackers have been exploiting poor security in a business phone system, causing it to generate large numbers of calls to international and premium rate numbers.

Typically the hack occurs when the business is closed and the hacker receives money from the calls with the business left to foot the bill, which can be many thousands of euros.

Telecom fraud, as it is known, is widely regarded as a serious threat to the telecommunications industry.

The director general of the Central Bank, Castlebar native Ms. Derville Rowland, told an Oireachtas Committee on December 5 there has been an increase in reports to them of websites that can clone or nearly clone the identity of regulated firms and the Central Bank has a duty to take action against what it calls unauthorised providers.

“These are firms that are pretending to be authorised when they are not. Sometimes the firms are not in Ireland so we cannot take action against them.

“There is also an uptake in advance-fee fraud whereby people are told that if, for example, they pay €250 now, they will be pre-approved for a loan and get a loan of a much larger amount. Where we see such activity, which is fraud, we report it,” she explained.