Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was targeted by scammers claiming to be him in an online phishing swindle, it emerged tonight.
Mr Coveney texted people on his telephone contacts list and informed them he believed someone claiming to be him may have contacted them seeking money.
The minister said: "I’ve been advised that some people are receiving communications purporting to be from the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and/or Simon Coveney requesting payments on the Telegram Messenger App.
"Please be advised that these are not from me. I do NOT use the Telegram Messenger App.
"So please be aware and delete any communications received purporting to be from the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and/or Simon Coveney on the Telegram Messenger App immediately. Do not respond to the communication or click on any links."
He added: "My apologies if any inconvenience caused."
The scam centres around a person being sent a message through the Telegram app with the sender claiming to be the Cork South-Central TD.
The swindler then offers the recipient a 'secret supply' of the Remdesivir antiviral drug in exchange for money.
The obvious hoax message is full of poor spelling and grammatical errors and says: “I forgot to tell you, do you know about Remdesivir the virus killer? You know it's scarce now globally because the American government paid millions of dollars to the few manufacturers to book all.
“I have a secret supplier in Hong Kong. For the past one month, I have delivered more than packages of the drug to my close friends right infront [sic] of their doorstep.
“Yes it works. It has saved more than 33 infected close friends of mine. I saved their lives.
“All they do is transfer the money to me, I do everything and within 7 days, the package will be right in their doorstep.
“It will be bad if I don’t also help you because you don’t know tomorrow if you get infected.”
It is understood the recipient is requested to send money if they engage or reply to the fake message and scam.
Mr Coveney confirmed the messages were not sent by him and he has never used the app.
