Limerick gardaí warn of child pornography email scam
LIMERICK gardaí are advising members of the public to be aware of a scam accusing people of possessing child sex abuse images.
“I was shocked to see it pop up on my screen, in a moment of panic I nearly replied to them immediately. I find it worrying that more vulnerable people might get targeted by this and be fooled by it,” explained one Limerick woman who contacted the Limerick Leader/Limerick Live after she was targeted by this scam.
Divisional crime prevention officer for Limerick, Sergeant Ber Leetch has advised the public to be aware of these types of scams and report them immediately.
“We will never ever issue a summons by email; they would be personally handed over or delivered through registered post that you would have to sign for,” she stressed.
The victim receives an email which claims to be a court summons from An Garda Síochána, accusing the recipient of possessing digital child sex abuse content.
The recipient is then requested to get back in contact with a copy of their passport, with the goal of extorting them for digital payments.
Reports suggest after being targeted by a similar scam a 17-year-old boy with autism in England took his own life after believing he was in legal trouble. A man in France also died by suicide after being forced to pay thousands of euros.
French police have reported a combined €3.5 million was stolen as a result of email scams accusing the victim of similar crimes.
This is the latest form of phishing scams. These occur when an attacker poses as an official entity and attempts to get the victim to reply to a text or email with personal information.