There has been a “staggering” amount of money stolen through investment fraud so far in 2024, An Garda Síochana has warned.
Investment fraud is where criminals pose as an investment manager in order to trick a victim into investing money in schemes and projects that don’t actually exist.
“During a period of high cost of living, these sophisticated criminals are taking advantage by cloning webpages and targeting victims through online and social media adverts by promising ‘once in a lifetime opportunities’ to instantly invest with fast and large financial returns,” the Gardaí said.
They added that so far this year, more than €13.5 million has been stolen from victims through this kind of scam.
Since January of 2020, there have been over 1,117 reports of investment fraud to the Gardaí, totalling €75 million being stolen in total – an average of €67,156.76 per report.
Notably, 44% of the reported incidents made reference to ‘Bitcoin’ or ‘Crypto’.
According to authorities, men are increasingly vulnerable to this kind of scam, with 64% of the victims since 2020 being male, and over half of victims being those aged over 40.
“Over €28 million was stolen from victims of investment fraud in Ireland last year,” the Gardaí said.
“That’s more than in 2021 and 2022 combined. While already this year, more has been stolen than collectively in either 2022 or 2021.”
In one reported incident this year, a man lost €250,000 in the space of a few weeks.
“He initially invested €250, and after several more investments he noticed his equity rising rapidly,” the Gardaí said.
“He was able to withdraw €5,000 and therefore believed that the company was legitimate.
“He continued to invest considerable size sums of money and within weeks had invested €250,000. The online trading broker disappeared and the victim has suffered a huge financial loss. Gardaí are investigating.”
The Gardaí said they were advising the public to “pay particular close attention when considering any potential investments.”
“Investment fraud is on the rise and the schemes are more sophisticated than ever before,” Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau said.
“Sadly, those who become victims are ordinary, decent people that are having huge amounts of their life savings stolen from them be it their inheritance or a retirement lump sum.
“The fraudsters involved in fraudulent investment schemes will sound convincing and claim to have insider knowledge but they are career criminals that are following a well-rehearsed script. It is crucially important that we are all mindful of who were are transferring money too and to be careful when sending via an international money transfer app to make sure it can be tracked.
“Investment fraud can easily happen and no one is to be judged – we really encourage anyone who has been a victim in the past or who has more recently become a victim of investment fraud to please come forward and speak with us in any Garda Station.”