Gardaí are warning of the latest money-conning trick which is quite sophisticated.
Thieves appear to be using a number from a local garda station and with that the name of a real garda.
These scammers may know your name and PPS number after getting your details from a hacked or leaked database.
Crime Prevention Office Peter McConnon has been explaining what happened during an elaborate three-part scam recently, telling KCLR News “Their phone does ring with a number which is mirroring a garda station number so it looks like it’s coming from a genuine garda station, even though it’s not, so people are being duped into thinking they are talking to a garda and they are being asked to transfer money into an account or to give personal information that would be able to basically infiltrate their finances”.
He’s calling for you to be suspicious of all calls, noting “The gardaí at no stage, at no stage, will be ringing you or no government department will be ringing you and enquiring directly over the phone about your finances if there’s a call to be made to somebody in relation to a scam that they may be subjected to normally the complaint comes from the person to the Gardaí rather than vice-versa”.
And Sgt McConnon adds that you simply can’t trust any call at this stage, saying “I’ll go so far, actually even further, that if you have a named person saved in your phone, a contact saved in your phone, and they’re able to mirror that person’s number, their name will come up on the call that they’re making as well, again you have to be very mindful of who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about”.
