NATIONAL: More than €13.5 million stolen in investment fraud in Ireland this year

An Garda Síochána is advising the public to pay particular close attention when considering any potential investments given the staggering amounts being stolen through investment fraud in Ireland.

Between January 2020 and this month over €75 million was reported stolen in Ireland through investment fraud.

So far this year, €13.5 million has been stolen from victims of investment fraud in Ireland.

Investment fraud is where criminals pose as investment managers to fool someone into investing money in schemes and projects that do not exist.

During a period of high cost of living, these sophisticated criminals are taking advantage by cloning webpages and targeting victims through online and social media adverts by promising ‘once in a lifetime opportunities’ to instantly invest with fast and large financial returns.

Between January 2020 and August this year, over 1,117 people have reported incidents of investment fraud to A Garda Síochána.

44 per cent of the reported incidents made reference to ‘Bitcoin’ or ‘Crypto’.

Men are increasingly becoming the victim of the type of fraud and remain most at risk.

The majority of victims in the past four years have been male (64 per cent) and those aged over 40 make up over half of all victims.

Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau said, “Investment fraud is on the rise and the schemes are more sophisticated than ever before. Sadly, those who become victims are ordinary, decent people that are having huge amounts of their life savings stolen from them be it their inheritance or a retirement lump sum.

“The fraudsters involved in fraudulent investment schemes will sound convincing and claim to have insider knowledge but they are career criminals that are following a well-rehearsed script. It is crucially important that we are all mindful of who were are transferring money too and to be careful when sending via an international money transfer app to make sure it can be tracked.

“Investment fraud can easily happen and no one is to be judged – we really encourage anyone who has been a victim in the past or who has more recently become a victim of investment fraud to please come forward and speak with us in any Garda Station.”

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