Irish people have lost over €1.1m so far this year through online shopping frauds.
Gardai are warning people to be careful if they're buying online in the run-up to Christmas.
In one case this year, a 69 year old man from Laois bought a JCB online for €15,000 - but it was from a fake company's website and the JCB was never delivered.
Offline
Another case involved a Leitrim woman buying a Playstation for her child through an online forum - she transferred €240 to the seller, who then went offline and wouldn't reply to messages.
The PlayStation never arrived.
They're among the 489 online shopping frauds reported to gardai so far this year - with total losses coming to more than a million euro.
An Garda Síochána are supporting @Europol in a Europe wide campaign to promote safe online shopping during the Christmas season and beyond #BuySafePaySafe #SellSafe pic.twitter.com/LwktefkPtm
— Garda Info (@gardainfo) November 9, 2020
Businesses
Another type of fraud Gardai are watching is where businesses are targeted by criminals using stolen or compromised credit cards and bank accounts.
There have been 346 incidents so far this year, with losses of more than €374,000.
