The value of fraudulent payments in Ireland increased by more than a quarter last year, according to new Central Bank figures.
Payment service providers reported more than €179 million in fraudulent payments during 2025, an increase of 27.2 per cent on the previous year.
Although the number of fraudulent transactions increased only marginally, the amounts being lost grew significantly.
Authorised push payment fraud — where victims are deceived into transferring money directly to criminals — accounted for almost €75 million and 45 per cent of total fraud by value.
Banking and Payments Federation Ireland’s FraudSMART initiative has warned consumers to be particularly cautious about convincing scam calls, text messages, online advertisements and requests to transfer money.
The Central Bank figures indicate that fraud affected approximately one in every 10,000 payment transactions during 2025.
