Scammers have hit on a new way of forcing money out of Irish people – by claiming gardai are investigating them for possessing sick child sexual abuse material.
A gang is now sending out this email, which purports to be a demand for payment of €5,879 as a fine for viewing the illegal material and an alternative to prosecution.
But gardai last night told us they were aware of the email and stressed it was entirely fake. “Gardaí are advising the public that An Garda Síochána does not and will not make contact with a person in this way,” a spokeswoman said.
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In the fake email, obtained by the Mirror, the scammers say gardai have set up a special surveillance operation to catch people accessing child sexual abuse material – what is legally called child pornography.
The email – which has the official Garda logo and even a legitimate looking barcode on it – says: “When one more crime are committed, the technical teams informs the hierarchy in order to obtain a notice if investigation in order to collect considerable evidence, after which the individual concerned (your case for example)is subjected to criminal proceedings to answer for his acts.
“We can assure you that the court, which condemns all attempts related to sex trafficking, cannot ignore any action against these victims of vandalism.”
And the poorly-written email then warns the recipient that they must stump up €5,879 – to avoid being registered as a sex offender.
It says: “To avoid appearing before the public prosecutor and file you as a sex offender, at the risk of ruining your reputation and your family, we wanted to offer you to cooperate for an amicable settlement, you must pay a fixed criminal fine of €5879 thus, the police will hide the case, delete your sensitive information and the evidence collected form our databases in order to suspend all proceedings against you.”
The email says once the money is paid the “gardai” will ask the National Cyber Security Centre to secure your internet data.
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But it warns: “If you refuse to cooperate or refuse to say so, we will have to resort to legal proceedings.” And the heartless scammers then tell the recipient that decision could see them locked up for 10 years.
The email says: “You know the impact, sequelae or damage it will have on your life.” It then orders the recipient to send a letter back with a scanned copy of their id to confirm they agree to pay the fine to settle the case against them.
Sources said investigators fear the email could terrify people into paying the supposed fine. “There could easily be some people who get this email and panic,” said one source.
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“But it is important that people know it is bogus.” And a Garda spokeswoman confirmed the force was aware of the latest in a line of scam emails purporting to come from the force.
She said: “Gardaí are aware of a current e-mail-based scam/ fraud where an individual receives correspondence claiming to be from An Garda Síochána. This correspondence states that the individual could be prosecuted in relation to investigations into Child pornography - Paedophilia - Cyber pornography - Sex trafficking or some similar ‘judicial’ claim.
“Gardaí are advising the public that An Garda Síochána does not and will not make contact with a person in this way.” She added: “We would like to remind the public of the following fraud prevention advice:
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- Don’t respond to any unsolicited email seeking personal, financial or security advice.
- Never click on a link or attachment in an unsolicited email.
- If you believe the email is from a genuine source, verify this independently. Independently means independent of the email sender.
- Independently verify any requests for information and never use the contact details supplied to you by the caller or texter. Independent means independent of the caller or texter.
“Further fraud prevention advice can be found here https://www.garda.ie/en/crime/fraud/
“We would urge anybody who has received similar correspondence and has any concern about it to contact their local Garda Station for advice. An Garda Síochána also appeals to any person who may have inadvertently or otherwise engaged with this scam, or any similar scam, and subsequently been a victim of this type of fraud to report it to their local Garda Station.”
Just last year, we revealed that scammers are now targeting foreigners living in Ireland – by pretending to be gardai and civil servants contacting them to protect them from hackers. An Indian student in a Dublin university was scammed out of more than €5,800 last September – when he was called by someone claiming to be a state official.
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The caller told the computer student that the government had learned he had watched a website that is banned over in America – and that hackers were also aware of that. He warned the student that because he had visited the website, the hackers were now able to access his bank account.
The bogus government official then duped the student into giving him his bank account details back in India – and stole just short of €6,000 from it. The alarm was only raised when the victim’s mother, who was a joint holder of his account, saw the money had been stolen.
Sources said gardai were aware of other cases where foreigners in Ireland fall prey to similar scams.
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