By Róise Collins

HOSPITALS in Donegal were spared from a nationwide technical glitch that was causing legitimate text messages to patients to be labelled as “likely scam.”

The new system, introduced by the Communications Regulator (ComReg), aims to tackle fraudulent text messages and protect people from opening or replying to fake messages.

The crack down comes as a report released in recent days identified significant activity in financial scams targeting Irish residents, with over 50 per cent increase from the previous year.

The Hotline.ie Annual Report 2024 also revealed that more than 50 per cent of financial scams reported were those impersonating trusted organisations like Revenue, An Post, or Irish banks.

However, the ComReg scheme was experiencing significant issues, with some people receiving genuine text messages incorrectly flagged as a “likely scam.”

It has been reported that appointment messages from hospitals were among those wrongly identified as fraudulent, leading to confusion and concern among patients.

The Donegal News contacted the HSE North West, which confirmed there have been no such incidents in Donegal.

A spokesperson explained that the SMS service providers used by hospitals in the region have been registered with ComReg to ensure they are not flagged as potential scams.

“We have no reports of patients receiving SMS from hospitals in the HSE West and North West region which have been marked as likely scam, including Donegal and the North West,” the spokesperson added.