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National Fraud Awareness Week launches in Ireland

  • Ireland’s first ever Fraud Awareness Week runs from October 9-15
  • 58% of people in Ireland believe they are more vulnerable to fraud now, than two years ago
  • New go-to website FraudSMART.ie launches in Ireland as part of campaign

Press Release, Monday, 9 October 2017:

A new campaign, FraudSMART, launched today as part of Ireland’s inaugural Financial Fraud Awareness Week, could not be timelier as campaign research found that 58% of people in Ireland believe they are more vulnerable to fraud now, than two years ago.

Running from October 9th to 15th, Fraud Awareness Week aims to raise awareness and prevent incidents of fraud through an information and education campaign throughout the week, including advertising, across radio and online, and the launch of a new online resource – FraudSMART.ie.  This new website will serve as a one stop shop fraud information website for businesses and consumers alike, including case studies, top tips, advice and fraud alerts to those who want to prevent and protect themselves against fraudsters.

With consumers and businesses targeted by fraudsters each year, resulting in the loss of millions of euro in Ireland, nationally representative research as part of the campaign found that the most common fraud experienced amongst adults in Ireland included; email scams (61%), followed by phone scams (39%), text or SMS scams (37%) and online scams (31%).

Niamh Davenport, Fraud Awareness & Payments Manager, BPFI, said, “Nearly 40% of adults claim they are concerned about fraud in their everyday lives, just over half (52%) are generally unconcerned and almost half of adults (46%) claim they know someone who has been affected by fraud. Given the advances and reliance on technology, it’s no surprise that fraudsters are getting more sophisticated and creative. Fraud can happen to anyone, and at any time, but it’s generally simple precautions that can be taken to protect people against getting caught out! That is why we have launched our new initiative, FraudSMART as part of Ireland’s first Fraud Awareness Week. Our aim is that FraudSMART.ie will be the one stop shop for people to arm, educate and inform themselves against fraud.”

Research findings also highlighted that checking of bank statements is more prevalent amongst those aged 55+ (94%). Just over half (51%) of 18-24 year olds and a third (34%) of those aged 25-34 check their online banking on public Wi-Fi. Level of concerns for fraud are higher amongst those aged 55+ (56%), followed by 45-54 year olds (41%), 35-44 year olds (31%), 25-34 year olds (22%) and only 9% of those aged 18-24 were found to be concerned about fraud in their everyday life. The top three cited behaviors which could have been taken to avoid a scam experienced as per the research were listed as:

  • Never click on links in emails (61%)
  • Paying heed to instincts (54%)
  • Never opening or downloading an attachment in an email (52%)

Adding comment, Niamh said, “Generally speaking, Irish people are pretty savvy when it comes to prevention. However, people still check their online banking on public Wi-Fi (25%), and nearly one in five (17%) allow vendors to take their card out of sight for payment – this tells us we need to educate people on the simple everyday actions they might take unconsciously that can leave them vulnerable to fraud.”

Financial Fraud Awareness Week runs from today, Monday, 9 October until Sunday, 15 October 2017. To inform yourself on how best you can protect yourself (and your business) against fraud visit FraudSMART.ie.

Research carried out by Empathy Research on behalf of the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland, April 2017. The research was conducted online across a nationally representative sample of 1,013 adults.

About BPFI:

Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) is the voice of banking and payments in Ireland.  Representing over 70 domestic and international member institutions, we mobilise the sector’s collective resources and insights to deliver value and benefit to members, enabling them to build competitive sustainable businesses which support customers, the economy and society.

Delivering a range of services through our specialist team, BPFI also offers an Associate network through which we offer many of the benefits of membership to the leading professional service firms that provide related advisory and consultancy services.

Through the work of our Brussels and Frankfurt based offices, our active membership of the European Banking Federation and our well-established EU and international networks, we are well placed to represent Ireland’s banking and payments industry at an international level.