Romance fraud warning as Irish bank account credited over €100k from 12 different people

• Published date: 29 June 2022
• Author: Emma Nevin
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

Hungarian police contacted gardai in September 2021 through Interpol, asking for their assistance as they were investigating a case of Romance Fraud where a woman was deceived into sending $4,000 to fraudulent account

Officers in Hungary discovered that the money was credited to an Irish bank account. Gardai identified the account holder and after an analysis they discovered that there were 46 suspicious credits into the account between September 2020 and October 2021.

The credits were from 12 different people, eleven women and one man, from eight EU countries, namely Germany, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland and the UK.

The bank account was credited a total of €109,880.28 during this 12 month period. Once the funds went through, they were then withdrawn in cash, transferred electronically and used in point of sale transactions, causing little money to be left in the account until the next credit was made.

Gardai said it is suspected each of the twelve people who credited money to the bank account are victims of romance fraud. Officers arrested the account holder this month and investigation continues.

From January to May this year, there have been 31 such cases reported to gardai, 23 by women and eight by men. In all cases except for one of the victims, they encountered the suspect over a dating app or through social media.

Officers have issued the following advice to any person on a dating site or in communication with a person they never met over social media

"1. Use reputable dating sites and use their messaging service. Do not move to social media or texting too quickly. Be especially wary of unsolicited links or approaches or suggested likes.

"2. Be careful what you share on social media and online dating websites. Do not reveal your full name or home address. Protect your identity.

"3. Be wary of anyone asking lots of questions about you but not revealing much about themselves. They will come across as being the ideal person. They will like what you like. Their interests will mirror yours. If you like classical 18th century French Poetry, then so will they. They family situation will mirror yours. They will want what you want. They want you to provide live videos but they can't / won't. Watch out for snippets of conversation which are out of sync with previous chats. These fraudsters are...