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As part of a monthly series, The Journal and Red C ask readers questions about their daily lives and the issues that really matter to them.
ALMOST THREE-QUARTERS of adults surveyed in Ireland said they received a scam call from an Irish number at some point over the past month, according to a new survey.
The Department of Social Protection and gardaí have been continuously warning the public about scam calls – with many coming from Irish phone numbers.
The most common scam call in recent weeks have consisted of one of a selection of pre-recorded message purporting to be from the Department of Social Protection.
Recent polling by Red C on behalf of The Journal shows that half of the people surveyed received a scam call in the last week from 083/085/086/087/089 numbers.
The results were largely similar across age categories, with 42% of people aged 55 and over receiving such calls in the last week compared to 54% of people aged 35-54.
However, when it comes to the past month, 73% of people polled said they received a call like this. This figure stayed consistent across age cohorts.
Just 11% of people surveyed said they have never received a scam call from an Irish number.
Paul Delahunty, information security officer at cyber security company Stryve, told The Journal that the survey results appear consistent with anecdotal reports.
“I’m also hearing those kind of figures, so it’s good that these surveys are done. It’s good to put an actual bit of science behind it.
“It does tally up very much so with my personal experience over the past month,” Delahunty said, adding he has received “about six of these calls” in that time.
He said it’s not unusual that people are still receiving these kinds of calls weeks after they started doing the rounds.
“You can’t definitely say ‘it’ll be over next week’ [for example], but they do tend to kind of come in waves,” he said.
“The biggest defence we have is public education and making people aware of what to do.”
According to Statista, around 3.6 million Irish people have a smartphone.
Where people lived – urban or rural – had little impact on being targeted by scammers, with results staying consistent across both sections in the poll.
There was a slight difference in terms of the age groups affected. 42% of people aged 55+ surveyed said they received a call like this in the last week compared to around 53% of people aged 18-54.
However, the figures tended to even out towards around 70% when it comes to receiving a scam call within the last month.
Last month, gardaí said they received reports of automated calls from numbers with 085/087 prefixes claiming to be from the Department of Social Protection.
These kinds of calls generally consist of an automated message about a person’s PPS number or bank account. Some recipients were told that their “PPS number has been suspended due to unusual activity”, while others heard that they are being investigated for money laundering.
Gardaí also received reports of scam calls claiming to be from An Garda Síochána.
A recent European Commission report found that Irish people ranked the second highest in the EU for saying they received an unsolicited call and were charged for it after answering or calling back.
People are advised to hang up any suspicious calls straight away.
Gardaí said:
The Department of Social Protection reminded the public that it will never ask for bank details over the phone or seek personal information through text.
The Data Protection Commission also said it’s aware of ongoing issues with scam calls. The DPC said it has received queries from the public about this issue but that it redirects to guidance put out by gardaí and ComReg.
Red C interviewed a random sample of 1000+ adults online between 1 and 7 July 2021. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results weighted to the profile of all adults. Panellists were chosen at random to complete the poll, with quotas set and weights allocated on age, gender, class, region, education level and working status to ensure a nationally representative sample.
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Some numbers used are very close to my own which make me suspicious immediately!
@Linda Dowling: I noticed the exact same thing – 3 numbers very similar to mine rang me within the space of 48 hrs. Really odd!
@Linda Dowling: That’s what happened with me. 085 with the same next 4 digits as my own number after.
@Linda Dowling: yes, I had 3 calls in one day, all from a number only 3 digits different from my own number.
@Linda Dowling: same as me
@Linda Dowling: Same here , mad and very strange .
@ShaneO’Mac: Same. Called it back later and got someone in Ireland who swears he never called me to begin with. Same number keeps calling. When I answered, it was someone without an Irish accent from “my bank”. They are able to trick your SP into seeing any number they want them to see.
I received 6 within an hour, they get persistant if you dont answer
@Sinead Merrigan: I gave a 25 digit credit card number and they couldnt understand it, great fun asking them to hold for a sec and leave them for a few minutes
@Garreth mc mahon: i didnt even bother. Appearamtly i have an international warrent out for my arrest for drug trafficking all from my pps number… Meh!
@Garreth mc mahon: You actually are better off answering the call and giving them the run around. Since they already want to waste your time and try to rob you and they have nothing real to get you on. Use up their time while they pay for the call. Hearing the frustration in their voice is great. Haven’t gotten a call in weeks because they give up.
Usually from India I find. They use Number spoofing software were they mirror local numbers. I’ve heard a story of an Englishman so fed up he paid B.T the £10 fee for a premium rate number @ £1.50 an hour and makes on average £30 per call. Or £500 per year. I hope its true.
@LUCY Thomas: They can also trick your service provider into believing any number they want them to believe is calling you. The days of buying blocks of local numbers is long gone.
It’s high time the phone companies take responsibility here.. if I wanted a new number I’d need Id, proof of address etc .. let the gardai and government force them to take the proper action especially from the numbers coming through as Irish based . These criminals are laughing at us. And poor people are being scammed out of thousands.
@Patricia O’Reilly: isn’t it all international?
@Seán Ryan: yeah but how do they get their hands on unlimited Irish phone numbers? And if they are fake numbers then that’s also a problem for the phone companies to figure out
@Daniel Wilson: didn’t the Hse get hacked sure they’ll have got numbers from that I’m sure and probably other places also.
@Patricia O’Reilly: it’s not that simple. They can trick service providers into believing a call is local, when it isn’t. They can even hide their real number and use an existing, in service, local number, essentially hacking into a number without hacking into the mobile.
The trick is to hang up immediately and then block the number.
@Mary Conneely: Did that Friday still had half a dozen more from similar numbers.
@Mary Conneely: kinda hard when your job hunting
@Mary Conneely: That literally does nothing. The trick is to find a way to get your number blacklisted on their end so they don’t keep calling and think your number is dead.
@Mary Conneely: Blocking the number doesn’t work. They don’t ring you on the same number all the time. They have a software program designed to generate a different number to get around this measure on your phone. Best way is to install an app on your phone that allows you to block all numbers from certain prefixes.
@Franny Ando: same as
If your number isn’t in my contacts, it’s not getting answered. As my Grandfather used to say “This phone is for making calls, not receiving them.”
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: by that logic we’d all be ringing eachother and never getting an answer
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: As your grandfather used to say …LOL
I fielded one of these calls – must admit it was a bit of fun.
When I told them my name – “Bertie Ahern” “Postcode” and all my details they asked for my bank account numbers.
When I told them I didn’t own a bank account they called me a spoofer and time waster and they hung up on me.
The cheek of them !!!
9 calls last week, 089 numbers mostly.
@Paul Cunningham: 085 for me.
The number spoofing is mostly as a result of the rollout of SIP communications (Voip)
just because the number looks like its originating from Ireland does not mean that it really is.
I manage the tech in several large call centers (inbound and outbound), outbound calls can have have any caller id that i specify. it is only a matter of legitimacy that prevents me from using fake numbers, not technology.
BT in the UK are starting getting to grips with this , their new SIP gateways will only place calls if one of the assigned geographic numbers is used, this prevents most abuse
Scam calls can be stopped but it requires a joint approach to telecom standards across EU and UK and the blocking of overseas IP addresses from presenting uk and EU based numbers, (good luck with that!)
@Frank Jasper: This needs to be top comment.
Got two alone, in one day last week. Why can proper people in charge, not immediately ban these numbers? Others can do it beyond Ireland in their own country.
@Jeff Rudd: in many cases the number you see displayed is not the actual number the scammers are using, they use spoofing software to imitate legitimate numbers. One commenter a few weeks ago said they received a call from a lady claiming their number had been used to contact her for a scam call, hence, banning the numbers just increases the number of innocent people inconvenienced by these scams.
@D. Memery: Thanks for the explanation.
I let them go to voice mail then listen. The minute i hear the weird voice i hang up n block number.
I received one on Friday, purporting to be from An Post using an 086 number.
@Noel Martin: — My wife got a message from Ann Post, some of the scammers don’t try hard enough.
@E.J. Murray: Jordan Belfour rang me last week!
Got several last week, also from numbers very similar to mine. Attention, this is ……. where I hang up. Such a nuisance. I used to get calls on my landline from “Amazon Prime”. Those finally stopped now.
Thankfully I’ve never had one..
Thanks HSE
This is since the HSE cyber attack
I’ve got three last week from a +44 number. I just declined the call. Good thing is, most people now know to expect one and ignore it!
I received 4 suspicious calls with 2 identical phone numbers. I decided to block them. Let’s see if there will be more coming this way.
i wonder did they get the numbers from the HSE cyber attack?
They also are using landline prefixes e.g. 049 and 057 received with an extra digit.
Had great fun for 20 when in the car with the kids
Our conversation when I got my “Postcode” wrong again, allowed them to hang up.
When I told them my name was Bertie Ahern and I didn’t have a bank account – they didn’t believe me !!!
Pretty sure they knew my name was correct they wouldn’t believe me when I said I didn’t have a bank account.
I’m working from home so I’ve been trying to keep any of them who call on the line for as long as possible. It costs nothing but it wastes their time and it might save someone vulnerable a call so why not? I did have a guy spend 5 minutes trying to explain to me how to find the last 4 digits of my PPS number which was fun.
I have noticed that if I answer but remain silent they hang up – I think their recorded message is triggered by your greeting.
I live in the North but have an 087 number. I’ve recently been receiving scam calls about my PPI number and from the Gardai
I’ve had a few from an American lady calling herself Ann Garda Seeacana.
Got the call from department of social protection two days in a row. What I would like to know is who to report to?
Almost all these calls originate from the same place. Until western governments grow a pair, nothing will change. The scammers are well-known to local police, but nothing is done about it because the police is corrupt.
@Earth Traveller: what can the government do in all fairness. If you’re a Facebook member and have your phone number on your account for easy log in and whatever else, and then Facebook gets breached and your number is released inline for scammers to use, tell me how that’s the governments fault? lol. It’s not. It’s OUR fault. For putting our phone numbers up on Facebook for our own convenience.
Take some accountability and stop trying to pass the buck to a government who had nothing to do with this.
Educate yourself on scams before you try to lecture people, Please
@Earth Traveller: also, these scammer’s are almost all international. So no. They’re not “known by local police” these are all sophisticated operations happening far from Irish shores. You know. For an “earth traveller” you really haven’t picked up much on your travels.
Its the normal, unfortunately.
I live in the North but have an 087 number. I’ve recently been receiving scam calls about my PPI number and from the Garda
My drug dealer rang me last week saying I owed him €10,000. I laughed and hung up. Broke my leg today. Gave him my PPS number.
I live in the North and have recently been receiving scam calls
Still getting at least one a day.
i had 4 last week alone. All 089 numbers. When i blocked that number it came up next time with a different 089 number
The sad fact is that you’re more likely to stop receiving them if you arse around on their calls with a person, so you get placed on a blocked list by the scammers themselves.
Blocking the numbers as you receive them doesn’t do much as they just spoof random Irish prefix phone numbers.
There are technologies available for phone networks to block calls received in this manner so hopefully with some pressure, they could implement this in Ireland too
I live in the North but have a southern mobile . I’ve recently been receiving scam calls about my PPI number and from the Garda
I seem to be getting loads with UK numbers. I foolishly answered one but am ignoring the rest.
+441215294445
Reportedly Amazon .. THEY KEEP RINGING ME
BEWARE !!!
If you have older teens with bank accounts, debit cards have a talk with them now.
I noticed a distinct lack of information regarding the Facebook Data Breach in April which led to most of these scam calls!!! How can you write an article without talking about how and why this has become such an issue in recent months.
I encourage everyone in Facebook to check their number on haveibeenpwned.com to see if your number has been compromised….if you’re a Facebook member. And have received scam calls in the last few months, then it’s 99.9% probable that it’s because your number was compromised during that Facebook Data Breach in April….even if the journal doesn’t see fit to tell you this! This is likely the reason. Check that site and find out if your number has been leaked online!
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