A new campaign, FraudSMART, launched this week as part of Ireland’s inaugural Financial Fraud Awareness Week, could not be timelier as campaign research found that 58% of people in Ireland believe they are more vulnerable to fraud now, than two years ago.
Running from October 9th to 15th, Fraud Awareness Week aims to raise awareness and prevent incidents of fraud through an information and education campaign, including advertising, across radio and online, and the launch of a new online resource – FraudSMART.ie.
This new website will serve as a one stop shop fraud information website for businesses and consumers alike, including case studies, top tips, advice and fraud alerts to those who want to prevent and protect themselves against fraudsters.
With consumers and businesses targeted by fraudsters each year, resulting in the loss of millions of euro in Ireland, nationally representative research as part of the campaign found that the most common fraud experienced amongst adults in Ireland included email scams (61%), followed by phone scams (39%), text or SMS scams (37%) and online scams (31%).
Research findings also highlighted that checking of bank statements is more prevalent amongst those aged 55+ (94%). Just over half (51%) of 18-24’s and a third of (34%) of those aged 25-34 check their online banking on public Wi-Fi.
Level of concerns for fraud are higher amongst those aged 55+ (56%), followed by 45-54yo (41%), 35-44yo (31%), 25-34yo (22%) and only 9% of those aged 18-24 were found to be concerned in their everyday life.
The top three cited behaviors which could have been taken to avoid a scam experienced as per the research were listed as: Never click on links in emails (61%); Paying heed to instincts (54%); Never opening or downloading an attachment in an email (52%).
Financial Fraud Awareness Week runs until this Sunday, 15th October – to inform yourself on how best you can protect yourself (and your business) against fraud visit FraudSMART.ie
