Gardaí are warning of what’s being described as a ‘romance fraud’ scam targeting people in the Thurles area.
A number of people have reported that attempts had been made to blackmail them after they had shared photos with people they had befriended online.
Sgt Ray Moloney says Gardaí are confident those behind the scheme are not in Ireland.
“Members of the public are being targeted on social media to share I suppose what we can call compromising pictures of themselves which are then used to extort money from them.
“The Thurles area recently is being particularly by people who most certainly are not living in this jurisdiction, not living in this country.
“We’re just asking people to be exceptionally mindful not to share any information with anybody on social media when they are contacted – especially by somebody who is not friends with them on social media.”
Sgt Moloney says those behind the scam are quite convincing.
““While the name of the profile might be a familiar name in terms of our own surnames in this area please do a little bit of background research. See are they friends with anybody else you know.
“These people who are adapting these profiles have done a lot of homework and would be familiar with areas that we would recognise – for example maybe a local GAA team or a local shopping centre to create the illusion that they are local.”
