Top 10 scams to watch out for: from investment fraud to the fake Microsoft fix

1: Hotel bookings hijacked. According to British consumer magazine Which? “weak hotel email and booking systems are being targeted by hackers to send troublingly plausible messages to holidaymakers”.
We have heard from readers who have fallen victim to such scams so know it is happening here too.
Criminals breach hotel security systems and get access to databases to extract guests’ contact and booking details, which allows them to send fake messages, texts or emails.
The victims are particularly vulnerable because unlike the blanket phishing or smishing scams we have frequently highlighted those being contacted actually do have bookings with the hotels in question so are far more likely to believe the contacts are legit.
Which said it was “particularly concerned about Booking.com scams. We had 20 reports about these last year and 40 in the first three months of 2024. Typically, messages claim there’s a problem with your payment, before asking you to ‘verify’ or ‘update’ your card details on phishing sites designed to look like Booking.com,” the magazine said.
2: Bogus broadband provider scams. Emails or messages from your broadband or phone company offering upgrades, refunds or other tech improvements can hit people hard, particularly if they are actually having issues with their provider or would be in the market for an upgrade.
3: Fake ads and dodgy subs. This scam is very, very common in Ireland. People are encouraged by social media ads to buy products which turn out to be non-existent or shoddy knock-offs or sign up to subscription services that fail to deliver anything they promise. One sinister tactics sees criminals place stickers of fake QR codes over genuine ones in car parks, restaurants and on posters and instead of bring people to legitimate sites, the dodgy codes take them to ones with the sole aim of stealing their money.
4: Account hacks. We have heard far too many stories of people who have inadvertently given criminals access to their bank accounts by following links or be duped by cold callers. The speed at which criminals can drain accounts is terrifying. The bottom line is never follow links in text messages or emails and always be very, very suspicious of anyone calling you out of the blue – or even after you have received a rogue text message – claiming to be from your bank or other service provider.
5: Investment fraud. We have heard from a great many people who have lost money after being duped by criminals promising significant returns on investment. What is most troubling is that most of those who are caught out are those who are financially vulnerable and so more likely to suspend their disbelief to find a way out of a financial predicament.
[ ‘Tell me Mr Conor, do you have any questions?’ A scammer calls PricewatchOpens in new window ]
6: Invoice scams. Criminals sending apparently innocuous mail to a company or individual in a business that looks like it comes from a supplier they deal with. The email asks for no money and is just an administrative alert to let the recipient know that the bank details for the supplier have changed. Payment systems are updated. Weeks or months pass before a legitimate invoice from the supplier arrives and is paid, but to the wrong bank account.
7: The chief executive scam. Scammers use the likes of LinkedIn to find out who the chief executives and senior financial staff are in companies. Then they send bogus emails purporting to be from senior executives to financial staff instructing them to transfer money into numbered bank accounts. The mails say urgency and secrecy are important and are addressed to a named individual and are from a named employer.
8: The Wangiri fraud. This sees scammers leaving missed calls from mysterious numbers on mobile phones. When calls are returned they are diverted to premium rate numbers overseas to the victim’s cost.
9: Phishing scams. Any email from a bank, the National Lottery, Netflix, Revenue or eBay or whoever asking for key details, such as passwords or bank account numbers, so they can update accounts with enhanced security features or send money are is to be treated with extreme caution. No reputable organisation will ever contact anyone in such a way.
10: The Microsoft scam. Calls come from people claiming to be from Microsoft offering to fix a deadly virus on the target’s computer for a small sum of money. Sometime the scammers look to take control of computers remotely, sometimes they look for sensitive financial details. They are always bogus calls.