‘You haven’t won the Spanish lottery’

The head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau paid a virtual visit to Cork this week to address growing concern around cybercrime.

Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan, who is also the head of the Irish Financial Intelligence Unit, delivered a presentation at Monday’s Cork County Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting where he outlined some of the biggest cyber threats facing society today.

Rather than calling it cybercrime, Detective Chief Superintendent Lordan used the term “cyber-enabled crime” to describe any crime committed through someone’s phone, email, internet or social media.

He said there are organised crime groups across the country and the globe who are running their entire operation through mobile phones alone.

He stressed that the best way to stop them is by simply not giving personal details to anything that seems in any way suspicious.

“As we get better as a community and as a nation, they get better at the methodology they use. It doesn't matter whether it's €200,000 or €2,000, that money's important to you,” said the detective.

He continued: “Don't click on the links. You haven't won the Spanish lottery so forget about it, you don't win these things by accident.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Lordan also advised the public to be careful what they post on social media and to be conscious of what others may be posting about you.

He said: “It's amazing what we're putting up on LinkedIn and Facebook, and you might say you never put anything up on Facebook, but what about your sons and your daughters and your neighbours and your brothers and your sisters? What are they putting up about you?”

Addressing the JPC meeting, Detective Chief Superintendent said: “I guarantee you within an hour I would have every single one of your dates of birth, where you live, the name of your cat, the name of your dog, and with Google Maps I could probably tell what car you drive.”

Another major issue linked with cyber-enabled crime is the use of money mules by organised crime gangs to launder their stolen money.

According to Detective Chief Superintendent, it is becoming increasingly common for young people, especially students, to allow their accounts to be used for money laundering in return for a small fee.

He said: “Without the money mule, these criminals will not succeed. These criminals are not silly, they don't want to put stolen money into their own accounts. Money mules are often students, it could be your son, your daughter, your nephew.

“We've done a lot of work with the colleges and campus liaison gardaí across the country, yet we are seeing hundreds of students every month giving their bank details to the criminals.”

He said the students often don’t even get paid and can face very serious consequences if and when they are caught including jail time.

“The guards will come knocking on their door and they're in serious trouble because they have just laundered the proceeds of a crime, more than likely from another country,” he concluded.