- In 2023, Irish people lost approximately $21.8 million to scammers impersonating bank employees.
- Crypto scams no longer dominate investment scams as crypto winter looms.
According to a recent Irish Independent report, scammers targeting banking customers have overtaken those targeting crypto traders in Ireland.
In 2023, Irish people lost approximately $21.8 million to scammers impersonating bank employees. Furthermore, instead of devising intricate crypto scams, fraudsters imitate banks’ websites and brochures to persuade victims to part with their money. Detectives have discovered over 20 bank accounts used by scammers in the U.K. They are yet to dismantle this infrastructure though.
A source told the publication,
In the last few months, what has become more and more common is that victims have been contacted often by phone or by email by fraudsters who are saying they work for legitimate, high-profile British banks or trading houses.
The scammers create fake websites or clone real websites. As a result, unsuspecting victims end up transferring funds directly. Additionally, they also download software on their computer which can be exploited to drain bank accounts.
Many of these victims, usually aged 50-55, are retired individuals. These people end up investing their savings in such intricate scams run by international gangs.
The Central Bank of Ireland warned that customers should be wary of banking workers who pressurize them into acting hastily and without thinking. Furthermore, this tactic is typically employed by scammers to fool investors.
Crypto scams are no longer lucrative
Despite accounting for 95% of frauds at its peak, detectives confirmed to the publication that crypto scams no longer dominate investment scams.
It is worth speculating that the number of crypto scams might have dropped due to a huge loss in profits witnessed in the crypto sector recently. The ongoing crypto winter has led to some of the bad actors abandoning crypto scams.
The publication quotes a source,
Cryptocurrency has something of a bad name at the moment among some investors, mainly because of some major international court cases and scandals that have made people nervous to invest.
The collapse of Terra [USDT] and FTX [FTT] in May 2022 and November 2022 respectively were two significant junctures when the market cap of the crypto industry fell drastically.
The market cap of the crypto industry stood at $1.89 trillion in May. At press time, it stood at $ 1.1 trillion.
Source: CoinGecko
