Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)

My question is about a growing but unseen issue in our communities, which is online fraud. I will give one example from a constituent this morning. The lady went on booking.com looking to book a holiday apartment. She responded to an ad and entered her contact details. She got a phone call back from somebody with an Irish accent who directed her to another site. She put in her details and got scammed out of €4,300. She has absolutely no recourse and booking.com is not interested because she went off its platform so there is no recourse. It is really difficult. The issue of online fraud is under-reported. It is not talked about, mainly because people get embarrassed about the fact they have been had. If somebody breaks into your house and takes a €500 television or something worth €300, you would be very quick to report it but punters do not report online fraud because they are ashamed and embarrassed. We just need to start talking about it and airing it as an issue.

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