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<\/p>\nScammers are trying to trick young people into handing over sensitive information<\/p>\n
Garda(Image: Garda\u00ed (stock))<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed have issued a warning about a new scam doing the rounds here on Leeside<\/a>, with fraudsters targeting students in an attempt to drain their bank accounts.<\/p>\n Scammers are impersonating Garda\u00ed<\/a> and contacting international students under the guise of an immigration check. The fraudsters then pressure these students, who may not be familiar with the Irish policing system, to hand over personal information such as email addresses, bank details, and MyGovID details.<\/p>\n Once these details are handed over, the fraudsters can use them to access sensitive personal and financial information. If these sorts of scammers gain access to your bank details, they often transfer large sums of cash to foreign accounts or cryptocurrency exchanges, making recovery very difficult.<\/p>\n Garda\u00ed have advised students that their members will never call them out of the blue to request bank account details or sensitive information like a PPS number.<\/p>\n If students are unsure, they’ve been instructed to ask the caller for their credentials and request the name of the Garda station they’re operating from.<\/p>\n Students can then ring the Garda station via the number listed on the Garda website to confirm the legitimacy of the phone call. Garda\u00ed emphasised that students should only call the verified, publicly available station number and never use one provided by the caller.<\/p>\n Anyone who believes they may have fallen victim to this scam has been asked to report it to the Garda\u00ed. A report can be made over the phone or at any Garda station.<\/p>\n A Garda spokesperson said: “We are aware of scam phone calls targeting international students in Ireland where scammers are impersonating members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na to try and obtain personal information from victims.<\/p>\n “During these phone calls, scammers may claim that they are doing an immigration check and need your e-mail, banking information and MyGovID details.<\/p>\n “Do not provide any information to anyone over the phone. Do not click on suspicious links in your e-mail inbox, and do not provide scammers with any reset codes to your bank or government account.”<\/p>\n It follows another recent scam warning circulated by Garda\u00ed ahead of the summer travel season. Garda\u00ed are warning holidaymakers<\/a> to steer clear of ‘too good to be true’ offers which can con victims out of \u20ac2,500 or more.<\/p>\n Summer is the most common time of the year for these holiday scams to crop up, with criminals devising plenty of clever and convincing ways to defraud unsuspecting consumers. Close to three-quarters of all holiday bookings are made online, and Garda\u00ed<\/a> have identified several common tactics the public should watch out for.<\/p>\n Criminals operating these scams typically have one of two objectives in mind: getting you to send a one-off payment or to disclose your bank details. These one-off payments are deliberately hard to trace, making it difficult to recover the money. Criminals have also used fake webpages to scrape bank details, which are later used to drain the person’s bank account.<\/p>\n The most recent figures on the Garda website put the average cost of an online holiday scam at \u20ac2,500. You can find more info on the common tactics these scammers use here<\/a>.<\/p>\n