Fraud cases up 65% this year say gardai

ROMANCE frauds have been cited as a growing form of crime in Tallaght according to gardai.

Fraud/deception cases are up 65 per cent in the Tallaght policing district this year according to the latest garda statistics with 86 fraud/deception cases recorded in 2024.

Senior gardai in Tallaght say romance fraud accounts for a significant part of this.

At the JPC policing meeting this week, gardai said a huge amount of media work was done on this recently to raise awareness of romance and business frauds.

A specific unit is looking at romance and business frauds in Tallaght which is considered to be a “developing area”, according to gardai.

In February, An Garda Síochána announced that over €7m has been stolen from victims of online romance scams since 2020, with tens of thousands of euro robbed at a time.

One man in his 50s lost 36k to an Asian woman he met online including paying for her Visa and flights to come to Ireland, while a woman in her 40s lost 35k after four months of online communication with another romance scammer.

Gardaí warn that scammers prey on their victims by setting up fake profiles on dating apps using another person’s photos – usually an exceptionally attractive individual – and matching with their victims.

When this happens, they will initiate conversation and groom victims over time into becoming willing participants in the scam by extracting money from them based on the false premise of love.

Garda advice is to never send money or give your bank details including online banking password to someone you have met online.

Be wary of anyone asking lots of questions about you but not revealing much about themselves, or anyone asking you to video call but they won’t.