Cyber Message - Online Risks and Prevention advice.

This month’s segment included advice from Det. Sergeant Paul Johnstone, Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau who discussed online risks and prevention advice. The Crimecall team went on location and conducted an interview with a victim of online sharing of intimate images. Paul commended the victim for her strength in coming forward to report the crime to Gardaí and for sharing her story with the viewers of Crimecall, some of whom may be in a similar situation or be victims of online abuse. He discussed other types of online abuse and crimes and offered preventive advice.

Types of online abuse or crimes:  

• Frauds such as Phishing, Vishing or Smishing where a fake link is contained in an email, voicemail or a text message.
• Missed delivery scams were you are asked to scan a code and provide bank or payment details.
• Harassment where someone is abused directly or nasty comments are made about them within a group.
• We recently celebrated Valentine’s Day and this traditionally sees the rise of Romance Scams where a potential partner contacts a victim over dating apps or Social Media and very quickly starts asking for money for a medical procedure or a business venture. But they never reveal much about themselves and never fully agree to meet.
• Sexual abuse crimes online where victims willingly share intimate content with someone they trust, only to find the other person is not what they seem and demand payment to stop the images being shared.

Steps to prevent falling victim to these types of crimes:

• Never click on links from unknown sources. Hover first to check where the link leads to.
• When it comes to missed delivery notices, contact the delivery company if you have ordered something. Clearly if you can’t remember ordering something, you should just ignore it.
• Romance scams - the red flag is when they start asking for money to put an end to the conversation. But first of all search for their photo online to see if it has been used or flagged elsewhere by someone else.
• A great rule is to never share personal information or images online unless you know the other person. And if you are sharing, ask yourself would you put the content on a notice in the local shop. If the answer is no, then don’t put it online.

What should someone do if they are abused or harassed online?

• First of all, stop all communications.
• Don’t pay any money or cryptocurrency demands.
• Block the other user and keep a copy of all of the conversations or chats, including details of the account they told you to pay into.
• Report it to your local Garda station with details of the abuser’s profile and what happened.
• Be able to give the Gardaí a copy of the chats or communications and crypto accounts involved.
• We are there to help and we will do all we can to identify the offender and bring them before the courts where a crime has been committed.
• So it’s essential that you report these crimes to your local Station early.