Money Times - September 4, 2018
Posted by Jill Kerby on September 04 2018 @ 09:00
BANK SCAMMERS TARGET THE VULNERABLE: COLLEGE STUDENTS
Bank fraud is so common that nearly everyone who uses the internet and has a bank account has been targeted.
Today, the fraudsters are members of international gangs and use the information we voluntary post on our social media sites to target the most vulnerable. And no one is more vulnerable (or bigger users of social media) than young people and students, including the tens of thousands of foreign students, who are struggling to find accommodation, let alone pay for soaring rent.
Next month [OCT] the Irish Banking and Payments Federation Fraud Alert section will launch an anti-fraud campaign as third level students return to college. It will warn them of the dangers of being caught up in money laundering scams and identity theft that could result not just in considerable financial loss, but also possibly being charged with money-laundering.
Two such elaborate frauds making the rounds right now involve outright theft using fake invoicing and the other involving the use of student’s current accounts by foreign money laundering gangs.
I heard about the first one from a reader whose son, a second year medical student in Dublin who was sharing a leased house with other students, ended up being scammed out of €10,708 this summer.
After deciding to return home to work for the summer to help pay for this next year’s expenses, the son, ‘Sean’, decided to sub-let his room in his shared house on a popular Irish-based property rental website. The rent was €1,708 but the English woman who answered his ad, and with whom he was in touch, sent him a paper bank draft drawn on a Lloyds Bank account for €10,708, not €1,708.
After quickly contacting her - she claimed she thought he was ‘sub-letting’ his room for the remainder of his lease and not just for the summer - he naively, but promptly, transferred back her €9,000 ‘overpayment’ via an electronic transfer, but this time to a bank in Turkey.
Within a few days of the draft being deposited, €1,708 worth of rent and utilities at his rented house had also been drawn down. A few days later, the bank, which had told him the payment could take “a number of days to clear”, informed Sean that the draft had been returned unpaid. His account was now ‘overdrawn’ for the entire €10,708.
The banks’ investigators subsequent found that the original bank draft was a counterfeit; it also reported that the Turkish bank to which the €9,000 was transferred refused to cooperate with their investigation.
Sean is now taking an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman on the grounds that his bank facilitated the drawing down of the funds to both pay his outstanding bills as well as the electronic transfer of the €9,000 ‘overpayment’ before the foreign draft was cleared.
Does he have a case?
Two years ago, in May, 2016 the IBPF published an article on their website about how small Irish merchants had been targeted with a similar version of this scam: a new overseas customer sends the merchant a paper cheque or draft payment to pay for an order. Their payment is a multiple of the correct amount. Once contacted, the buyer apologises for the ‘overpayment’ and suggests that the merchant refunds it by electronic payment. A few days later, the bank reports that the original invoice payment has effectively ‘bounced’.
According to the IBPF, the Irish banks have reported ‘hundreds’ of such cases of this sophisticated, international fake invoice clearing scam to them over this past summer alone, many of them now involving student account holders. But had the banks learned from their 2016 experience and taken proper preventative measures – say, a software programme to stop on-line customers from accessing funds before they cleared, or to alert them by SMS, a text or email when they did clear, none of these frauds could have happened.
The other major scam that involves the student community, and that will feature in the IBPF’s anti-fraud campaign in October is being dubbed ‘The Money Meal’.
This time, the international fraudsters identify Irish and foreign students here via their social media sites on which they reveal a great deal of personal information. The fraudsters might claim to be a member of an agency or organisation that is helping support the student community but haven’t yet finalised the setting up of their office or bank. Could the student let them use their account to bring funds to Ireland, for which they will receive a small reward, say €50 or €100? The student is then as ked to transfer the balance to another account, but as with the other scams, the banks pay out before the money from the original transaction has cleared.
The October college information campaign by the IBPF will be warning students that anyone making their account available for such transactions could end up being prosecuted.
But as one banker told me, “Rents are so high now and students are so desperate for money. The scammers know what they’re doing.”
(Letters to jill@jillkerby.ie The TAB Guide to Money Pensions & Tax 2018 is available in all good bookstores. See www.tab.ie for ebook edition.)
TUTUAPP APK IOS on Mar 05 2019 15:35
Lucky Patcher APK 8.0.5 Download for Android on Mar 05 2019 15:35
How to Download Minecraft PE 1.13.1 for Android – Full Version MCPE 1.13..1 on Mar 05 2019 15:36
Pink Lady Jacket Grease on Mar 26 2019 13:36
online digital marketing in malaysia on Apr 26 2019 10:34
Search engine optimization companies in malaysia on Apr 26 2019 10:35
SPI Interface of Raspberry Pi Using Python on May 04 2019 09:43
his explanation on May 18 2019 11:09
home tutor in karachi on Jul 16 2019 16:08
pvamart on Aug 07 2019 12:59
<a href="https://www.danezon.com/category/halloween-sale/"> Halloween Jackets </a> on Sep 21 2019 14:11
<a href="https://www.danezon.com/category/halloween-sale/"> Halloween Jackets </a> on Sep 21 2019 14:11
thejacketzone on Oct 16 2019 07:12
abdullahibrahim
Navodaya Result 2020 Pudicherry on Mar 03 2020 12:38
BuzzCoderXph on Mar 17 2020 06:51
https://de.altomergepdf.com/reviews on Apr 15 2020 14:56
CISF Employee Corner on Apr 21 2020 13:55
123movies on Apr 30 2020 14:29
Samuel Bricks
Minecraft Pocket Edition APK on Jun 19 2020 11:59
Sketcher44 on Jul 11 2020 07:47
www.floorrefinishingmilwaukee.com/ on Jul 20 2020 14:54
Mrs Mitchell Jacqueline on Jul 28 2020 00:28
jibran ahmed
https://dentistlifestyle.com/ on Jul 30 2020 14:08
Game Leather Jackets on Aug 04 2020 06:33
Sania Sohail on Aug 07 2020 06:13
PMAY - Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Housing Scheme on Aug 09 2020 10:17
Adams Adams
https://altopdf.com/convert-jpg-to-pdf m/convert-jpg-to-pdf on Aug 14 2020 08:10
Theo
seo services on Aug 26 2020 13:22
little rock signs on Aug 26 2020 13:23
PVA Gmail Accounts on Aug 28 2020 10:51
https://www.digitekprinting.com/vinyl-banners on Sep 02 2020 12:15
Invincible01 on Sep 28 2020 13:37
http://www.qualityassignment.co.uk/services/assignment-writers/ on Sep 29 2020 06:25
China steel forging parts manufacturers on Oct 09 2020 07:54
Invincible01 on Oct 09 2020 13:51
Funding Opportunity
lakewood ranch ac contractors on Nov 13 2020 03:39
Locksmith Milwaukee on Nov 13 2020 03:42
maui family portraits on Nov 13 2020 03:45
custom closets st pete on Nov 13 2020 03:46
pool repair bradenton on Nov 13 2020 03:52
sarasota photographer on Nov 13 2020 03:54
outdoor kitchens & bbq el dorado hills on Nov 13 2020 03:56
gainesville kitchen remodeling on Nov 13 2020 03:58
soft washing lakewood ranch on Nov 13 2020 04:01
KW Suncoast Casella Group - The LWR Realtors on Nov 13 2020 04:08
Fit and Trim of Sarasota LLC on Nov 13 2020 04:10
New Model Rescreening and Painting on Nov 13 2020 04:11
online assignment help on Nov 26 2020 07:40
Harley Quinn Suicide Squad Jacket on Dec 24 2020 19:37
women's Shearling Leather Jacket on Dec 26 2020 12:04
Allen Baker on Jan 04 2021 08:50
Ruth Asher on Jan 05 2021 02:32
Gary Walden on Jan 05 2021 04:11
Abra Jarrod on Jan 13 2021 02:11
http://www.a1securitylocksmithmilwaukee.com/ on Jan 13 2021 02:12
daniyal abbas
https://eatmywords.com/our-edge/ on Jan 13 2021 09:24
Jeffrey Bing on Jan 18 2021 05:28
Jeffrey Bing on Jan 18 2021 05:30