Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty TD, has called for policy interventions to protect consumers against the rise in scams and fraud.

This comes as Bank of Ireland warns its customers of a wave of fraudulent text messages urging customers to pay outstanding toll charges or update their account details.

Teachta Doherty said:

“Financial fraud and scams are on the rise, posing a growing threat to customers.

“Citizens are now being robbed of millions of euros a year by fraudsters.

“Today’s warning by Bank of Ireland of fraudulent text messages being sent to their customers seeking outstanding toll charges and account details is yet another example of the lengths fraudsters are going to in order to rob citizens,

“People are now faced with a cocktail of tactics being employed by fraudsters – from phishing and vishing to smishing.

“Only last month, FraudSMART warned of highly convincing investment scams which used brochures circulated online that targeted over-55s with a minimum investment of €20,000.

“These scams are being advertised online, on social media, by email and text message. Action must be taken to protect citizens.

“When will mobile providers, online platforms and social media companies take responsibility for the fraudulent content that is being advertised through their platforms to rob citizens?

“There is no requirement for mobile providers, online platforms, social media companies to pay compensation to victims of fraud – that needs to change.

“There is also no requirement for payment service providers to pay compensation to victims of authorised push payment fraud – something that will soon be in place for consumers in the North.

“And we have no system to cross-check the name of the person victims send their money to against the name on the actual account – this is called Confirmation of Payee and has been successfully introduced in the Netherlands and Britain.

“These are actions that could be introduced to protect customers from the rising threat of scams and fraud.”