Criminals Making Thousands From Irish Companies In Email Scam

A senior Garda has warned that jobs are at risk as criminals scam businesses out of hundreds of thousands of euro.

Assistant commissioner John O’Driscoll said the scam, which happens every week, rerouts money to fake accounts.

According to the Irish Mirror, in one instance, two men were waiting to take out the rerouted money once it hit the new bank account, but the Gardaí stopped it just in time.

Dublin Zoo and Meath County Council have also been victims to the scammers.

Mr O’Driscoll said invoice redirect fraud is one of the biggest threats facing Irish companies.

Invoice redirect fraud is where criminals use an email to deceive a person or business into thinking an account has been changed.

At a Garda press briefing, O’ Driscoll said, “the level of criminality involved, and level of money involved in that type of crime, is absolutely phenomenal.

“It could be argued it is one of the reasons why we don’t see people engaged in armed robbery to the extent they may have in the past.”

He said the criminals were closing down companies and in recent weeks alone, hundreds of thousands of euro have been handed over to the criminals.

He added, “In one recent case funds were directed from where they should have been sent simply by an email declaring there was a new bank account, which was an account organised by criminals.”

The money was sent and two individuals were waiting to withdraw the money as soon as it hit the fake account but it was stopped in time.

Be careful, guys.

READ NEXT: It Looks Like The Rain Will Be Sticking Around For A While