Tipperary’s Crime Prevention officer is reminding people in the county to be vigilant of romance fraud.
While this happens all year round -with today being Valentine’s Day the public are being alerted to these scams which more and more are now linked with investment fraud.
Sergeant Tom O’Dwyer who is the local crime prevention officer says that they have seen multiple cases across the county, with 2 million stolen from people across Ireland in the last year.
He told Tipp FM that 70% of the victims are women, while 30 % are men, and that often people are too embarrassed to come forward to Gardaí so it is likely under reported.
He also offered some of the usual excuses that are given to try and engage victims to send money.
“They meet someone online on a dating app or whatever and the victim is asked to send money and usually the following excuses are given – To cover the cost of travelling to see the victim, for emergency medical expenses, customs duties or other bills, or more and more often now we are finding people are being asked to invest in a business opportunity. The signs out there are if the person is reluctant to meet you or to come and meet you or if they give excuses they might have arranged to fly over from another country to meet you and then at the last minute they might change for whatever reason.”
Victims of Romance Fraud in Tipperary are being assured that any reports will be treated with sensitivity.
Sergeant O ‘Dwyer also fears that many instances of this crime go unreported due to shame or embarrassment.
“We know that people are sometimes too embarrassed to report these crimes to us so this is probably a crime that is under reported. Because you know when people do that they feel a certain stupidity and a sense of shame. So we would always ask you to report it to us.
Again if you have a friend or family member that you think might be getting drawn into one of these scams and they won’t come forward themselves maybe you would report it to us and we will take it forward in a sensitive manner.”
