Niamh Davenport

A lot of the time then we see you've got a follow-up call from a so-called financial advisor in some cases urging you to make an immediate security deposit just to secure your place on the scheme

And then once you're convinced and you want to continue with the investment, you'll make a full investment amount then at a later stage.

But this could go on for quite a while.

There could be back and forth with the fraudster.

They could be using brochures, for example, of investment schemes that you think are real.

And eventually, when the fraudster does get the money, they quickly transfer the money out of the account off and overseas where it's cashed out then.

There have been refunds, but you need to act as quickly as possible.

Like I said, the fraudsters are sitting there waiting for the money.

And because this goes on for quite a number of months, you know, you believe that it's to be true.

We've even seen some cases where the fraudsters, for a monthly basis, will send statements to the person so that they believe that the investment is safe, but it's really a scam, obviously.

So the quicker you report it, the more likely you are to get your money back.

Report it to your bank and also report it to an unguarded shiokona.

Yeah, on average, they range from, I said, 250 up to 10,000 euro.

But we've seen figures far beyond that, significantly beyond that.

This is, like I said, it's investment coming up to retirement.

It's your pension lump sum.

Maybe you've inherited money recently as well.

You're looking at ways, what can I do with this?

How can I secure this for my future?

And it's just significant amount of money.