International criminals allegedly used scams to con innocent renters out of €900,000 before it was then laundered abroad.
The Irish Mirror can reveal gardai from the National Economic Crime Bureau are working with Dutch police to help dismantle a suspected Romanian gang, who gardai suspect are operating European-wide.
They allegedly once used Irish bank accounts to attempt to clean nearly €6million from a range of fraudulent activities, including rental scams.
Gardai later charged more than 10 people for their alleged organisational roles on behalf of the gang under Operation Omena.
And although they are not suspected of operating in Ireland any longer, people here are still being conned. Rental scams see fraudsters luring people into paying money online for accommodation that doesn’t exist. Once they get the money from someone in one jurisdiction, it is transferred to another.
In a 28-month period, between February 1, 2019 and March 31, 2021, over €900,000 was allegedly stolen in rental scams in Ireland.
Det Supt Michael Cryan of the GNECB yesterday warned students ahead of their return to college of the scams.
He said: “One is the student, then you have the people looking to rent an apartment abroad for the weekend and then you have foreign people who rent an apartment in Ireland and discover that it doesn’t exist.
“It’s seasonal, for students it’s this time of year when it’s September and October and for the rest of the people it’s summer-time around holiday periods.
"There are still Irish people being scammed but how this gang operates is, the money will be laundered through a different country and that’s to make it more difficult for the police.
“They will ensure that at least two jurisdictions are involved because they know how difficult it is to investigate and follow up on.”
Facebook Marketplace is where gardai are seeing the majority of scams being carried out and Dublin is the main place targeted.
Det Supt Cryan added: “There are no borders in cyberspace.”
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