Gardaí warn Louth shoppers of online shopping fraud threat

Gardaí are asking shoppers to be aware of online shopping fraud as an increasing trend that is being seen, especially in the run up to Christmas.

Also called purchase fraud, victims are defrauded in a number of ways:

• Goods are not delivered at all
• Goods delivered are counterfeit or not what was advertised
• Fraudsters now have the victim’s credit / debit card details and use them to make their own purchases

In the period from 1st of January 2022 until 31st October 2022, 550 Online Shopping Frauds have been reported to An Garda Síochána. The average loss was €1,537 per incident representing an overall loss to Irish citizens of €845,093.31.

The business community are frequently targeted by fraudsters using stolen or compromised credit cards, bank accounts or payments, in what is called Card Not Present Fraud. Businesses who are victims of this fraud will suffer losses under the ‘charge back’ process.

In the first 10 months of 2022, 1,356 Card Not Present Frauds have been reported to An Garda Síochána in Ireland, representing an average loss of €959 or a total of €1,300,527.00.

As we enter this busy season, consumers and businesses will be particularly active online and An Garda Síochána and Europol advise consumers to follow the golden rules for online shopping.

The Golden Rules

• Buy from trusted sources - Make sure the website you are on is real – not cloned or fake. Make sure there is an "https" at the beginning of the web address and a padlock symbol displayed beside the URL before the purchase is made - this indicates a secure connection. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web
• Another way of determining whether a site is real or not is to look for the trust seals - Trust seals are commonly placed on homepages, login pages, and checkout pages. They’re immediately recognizable and they remind visitors that they are secure on this page. YOU CAN CLICK ON THEM TO SEE IF REAL
• Know the website’s policy on refunds and know your consumer rights. They are protected if proper site used
• Where selling platforms offer an official, safe way of paying, use this rather than sending money directly to a third party – otherwise use an online payment option such as PayPal, which helps to protect you.
• Check their payment methods – should be credit cards. Never transfer money direct or pay cash. Ensure data transfer is secure
• If a website is asking you to send money to a random PayPal address, wire it by Western Union, pay in iTunes gift cards or only deals in cryptocurrency, that should send up a red flag. The majority of the time, those methods are done to avoid scrutiny and ensure that a transaction can’t be reversed.
• Don’t enter into off site communication for a lower cash price
• Never purchase through social media or where the ‘offer’ came to you via social media
• Do not under any circumstances use public Wi-Fi when making payments - switch to 3G/4G on your phone if necessary
• Independently visit the website of the online sales company as opposed to clicking on social media or pop-up adverts

#BuySafePaySafe

See further details here. Businesses are warned to protect their sales and revenues by identifying risks: know their product, know their customers, utilise safe means of payment and use reliable delivery methods. Consumers and businesses must protect their personal data during transactions other than the normal data required to complete a transaction.  This site provides advice on all aspects of online shopping.

#SellSafe

Online Shopping Fraud in Ireland

Examples – Consumers – Online Shopping Fraud

• A 53-year-old Female purchased a phone online. When she received the phone she reported it is a counterfeit.
• 18-year-old male sold his phone online. They met the buyer and handed over the phone. The money was never transferred to the victims account.
• 28-year-old female purchased clothes on what she believed was a legitimate website. After the payment was made she realised the website was fraudulent. Victim never received the parcel.

Examples – Businesses - Card Not Present Fraud

• A bank account was compromised and the account details were used to book an overnight stay in a hotel in Galway to the value of €342.00. The holder of the account was refunded by the bank. This cost may be placed with the hotel, who accepted the account details, in the charge back process.
• A female was informed by her bank that a fraudulent transaction had occurred on her debit card for €70.00 at a business premises. Her card number, expiry date and security number had been identified by a fraudster. The bank or the business will suffer this loss.
• Female reported fraudulent use of her credit card. Female had credit card on her person at all times, however the card details had been used online through ‘Click and Go’ for over €300.