Friday 24th July, 2015

Ireland’s National Police Service, Gardai have issued a warning after a spate of ‘invoice redirection frauds’ were reported by Irish businesses.

A total of 14 recent cases have so far been reported to Gardai.

This type of fraud typically begins when a business receives an email or letter from an existing creditor notifying them of a change in bank details. 

The scammed business then pays the next invoice payment into the fraudulent bank account in Ireland or outside. There is no pattern in the fraudulent account details as they involve different financial institutions in both Ireland and the UK.

Over €5m has been targeted, but vigilance of financial institutions has resulted in only €100k of it has so far been successfully stolen.

Banks were able to intercept some of the funds being the transferred, and recover some funds that was scammed.

Gardai say, as a security precaution it should be confirmed by verbal contact with the relevant financial control person in each business that purportedly sent change of account instructions as to whether they were genuine instructions or not.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation are liaising closely with the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland over the fraud.