Scam alert: gardaí warn businesses over invoice fraud

Gardaí have warned businesses to be vigilant following a recent rise in invoice frauds.

According to members of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the new type of scam emerged late last year when criminals began sending emails and letters to businesses and organisations requesting them to change their payment arrangements.

Any information received is then used in an attempt to siphon off funds to illegitimate bank accounts.

Gardaí have received 18 complaints about such activities since the end of last year, including four in the two months since February.

Simple but effective fraudulent messages can be used to illegally obtain multi-million euro sums of money, and the problem can affect any party from businesses and State bodies to charities and private individuals.

Anyone who receives a suspicious message which relates to the payment of invoices - particularly to a new or unknown external bank account - is advised to check the message source, review existing protocols for changing payment details, and to personally verify any changes with the other party involved.

"It's quite a basic fraud to be perfectly honest... a particular issue with this type of scam is that companies pay invoices, and it might be months before they become aware of any problems," said Det Supt Gerard Walsh of the fraud bureau.

‘Domestic element’

“We think there’s an element perpetrating the acts abroad but there’s a domestic element as well,” he added.

“In these types of jobs it’s rarely the case that money stays where it went to in the first instance, [it] moves on two, three or four times.

“In most cases the money can be frozen and returned, but the danger is if it’s not identified for three or four months and is moved to different accounts - and then when you actually reach the last account the money is long gone.”

It is thought the warning was inspired by news of a Chinese-based hacking scam which cost Ryanair €4.6 million, as was reported in Wednesday's Irish Times.

A statement from the airline said the money in that case has since been frozen and will be repaid shortly.