Viewers of the Claire Byrne Live programme on Monday night were left united over one topic discussed on the show.
The RTE current affairs show featured a new segment on both short-term and long-term rental scams as they revealed that fraud-related crimes doubled in Ireland last year.
Two women revealed how they had lost hundreds of euro to a holiday home scam that had been advertised on Facebook Marketplace.
They had each paid around €250 as a deposit over PayPal to book a rental property in Ireland but it turned out to be a scam.
Other guests on the programme revealed that they had also been scammed when trying to book long-term rental properties and had lost much larger amounts to scammers, ranging from €1,400 to €2,500.
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Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan appeared on the show to warn viewers about the red flags to watch out for when booking a rental property.
He told viewers to always use legitimate websites and do your due diligence on properties, including a reverse image search on the pictures of the advertisement.
Detective Cryan also said to be wary of a price that appears "too good to be true" as well as a sense of urgency from the landlord, or if they ask for any unusual payment methods.
However RTE viewers were unsympathetic to the people who had fallen victim to the scams as they shared their own advice on the issue on social media.
One person said: "People, do your d**n research for God's sakes. Research, double and triple check... #cblive"
Another wrote: "Look. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Also, stop doing things through Facebook. #cblive"
A third said: "There's a reason PayPal tell you about not getting a refund in an event of fraud from sending a payment through friends and family #cblive"
Meanwhile, another suggested how to catch scammers and help people who had been scammed, saying: "Interesting piece on scams on Claire Byrne Live tonight. Here's an idea. What if the State assumes the scammer's debt to the victim, repays the money to the victim out of its enormous pocket and then relentlessly pursues the scammer for the money + damages + expenses? #cblive"
