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FOUR OUT OF five people in Ireland believe that scams have become more sophisticated in the past year and are increasingly difficult to identify, according to a new survey.
Polling carried out by Censuswide also found that nearly half (46%) of Irish people believe scam that awareness should be taught in schools, while 98% think that children should be taught some form of scam awareness from a young age.
The survey of 2,000 Irish adults was carried out in January 2025 on behalf of the money app Wise.
It found that the majority of Irish people (77%) believed that scam attempts increased significantly last year, with 82% saying they had become more sophisticated during that time.
Men reported almost double the amount of average losses (€2,168.73) to scammers than women (€1,151.22), and also said they were less likely than women to admit to family members that they have been scammed.
James Clements, Wise’s scams and financial fraud expert, said that polling also showed that people could do more to prevent themselves from being defrauded.
He noted that only a quarter of people have set up fraud alerts with their financial provider or credit card company, while just one in ten people have registered with identity theft monitoring services.
Last month, Gardaí warned the public to be vigilant about “very high” levels of text message scams.
They warned that fraudulent text messages were beginning to appear within a previous genuine thread of texts from certain companies and institutions, often urging customers to call phone numbers that are not genuine.
They also reminded the public to remain wary of texts from unknown senders, and unusual requests that appear in threads of previous genuine texts.
People have been reminded to never ever click on links in a text and never ring a number contained in a text, or to give away personal data, such as bank details, PINs, passwords, one time codes, PPS number or Eircode, or transfer money.
Anyone who has been a victim of fraud is advised to change their passwords and PIN codes, report it to their bank as soon as possible and ask the bank to do a recall.
Gardaí have also urged the public to report any suspected incidents of fraud directly to them.
Ever wondered how disinformation spreads so rapidly – or who is behind it? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to finding good information online.
The last attempted text scam I received last week was actually a hack of PTSB servers. It came in on the actual thread of genuine notification texts I had previously received. Fake direct debit and phone to report number. Obviously NEVER ring a number in a text or click on links. Exit and ring directly to report.
@Sickof thisshit: They’ve been able to get into text message threads for a while now. Something I do notice is that when you do have a genuine delivery coming, you start getting some scam texts and usually claiming to be from the correct delivery company. Someone clearly selling our phone numbers.
@Peter: If you own smartphone you basically have a spy in your pocket, it doesn’t matter on apps that are installed every single swipe and keystroke is recorded, this data is then categorized and sold, some to marketing and advertising companies and some to large scam operations. You and your data are the product for many many companies.
@Peter: Not to mention if you ever get on the radar of law enforcement or any 3 letter org.
That scam in November where they got everyone in the country to vote but then nothing really changes after except we lose more money with the scam……keeps happening every 5 years and people fall for it
Unless a name comes up on my phone I don’t answer it. Unless a letter comes through the post I don’t pay any attention.
The wallet inspector on Talbot Street really got me.
I’m scammed at every election.
Indeed, so sophisticated
we voted Fianna Fail and Fine Gael back in to power again.
If not by post, forget it.
No… Richard Smith calling from his laptop in India to tell you that your bank has been hacked really isn’t “sophisticated”.
I keep getting scammed by the wife she’s an expert. Seriously there is little you can do if someone is stupid all the advice in the world means nothing, Johnny Depp told me that last night.
@Dan Murphy: I don’t think it’s fair to say that someone is stupid. It takes specific things to make someone trigger that it is possibly a scam. And no, I haven’t been scammed.. to date!
Use cards more thats why
A few of the main reasons I see for this claim of ‘sophistication’ are that the scammers are leveraging ‘ai’ to form coherent sentences with much better punctuation, grammar and spelling.
Another is that the mobile or email providers are woefully inadequate at using basic features they already have at their disposal. Recognizing that a text message supposedly coming from a known number like for any bank operating here, but is coming in via an internet service from India etc, and displaying as that number… is really simple to detect, if they cared.
Same for emails where the supposed sender doesn’t match the actual server that known to be what sends out actual alerts.
Really think that these providers can’t notice spam telling me my netflix or apple or prime subscription is in jeopardy unless I follow a link to give updated card details, when they know the sender is not coming from those companies?
have your say