Vigilance urged ahead of Black Friday as card scams surge

Irish consumers are being urged to remain vigilant for fraud attempts in advance of Black Friday and the busy Christmas shopping period amid a sharp rise in financial scams.

Fraudsmart, an initiative headed by the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BFPI), has warned that scammers tricked Irish consumers out of €45 million in the second half of 2021 alone, a sharp 37 per cent increase on the same period in 2020.

The warning comes as separate figures from AIB show that Irish consumers spent €18,000 a minute on Black Friday last year – or almost €26 million during the day – with women spending 66 per cent more than men. A further €19.5 million was spent on Cyber Monday.

The value of credit and debit card fraud alone topped €18.5 million in the six months to the end of last year, an increase of 18.5 per cent year-on-year and the highest level since the first half of 2017, the banking lobby group said.

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“Most of the increase was driven by online card fraud or ‘card not present’ where a fraudster uses the victim’s compromised card information to make an online purchase,” the BPFI report says. “However, 2021 also saw payment card fraud at ‘point of sale’ or in-store return to pre-Covid levels as most retail outlets reopened with the lifting of most public health restrictions.”

[ Irish shoppers do not trust Black Friday sales promises, watchdog finds ]

The figures indicate “a sharp increase” in online and mobile banking fraud, which usually occurs when sensitive payment details including PIN codes are misappropriated, the BPFI said. The value of unauthorised electronic payment frauds stood at €21.5 million for the second half of 2021.

“Today’s fraud figures are a stark reminder that consumers need to be on high alert during what is the busiest online shopping period of the year,” said Niamh Davenport, Fraudsmart lead at the BPFI.

She outlined a series of steps consumers should take to avoid being the victim of fraud when shopping online, they include: using sites where a padlock symbol is shown beside the website address; avoid using public wifi when making payments – switch to 3G/4G on your phone if necessary; type in the website of the company selling the item you want yourself rather than just clicking on social media or pop-up adverts; be cautious about outrageous offers – if it sounds too good to be true it probably is; and stick to well-known websites, ones you are familiar with, or ones associated with high street retail outlets.

“With a jump of almost 46 per cent in debit card fraud losses alone, we are calling on all consumers to pause for thought before parting with their money or information and familiarise themselves with some of the very straightforward steps they can take to protect themselves,” she said.