Ireland has seen a rise in scams perpetrated by fake bank representatives, resulting in citizens losing €20 million in 2023. Scammers contact victims through phone calls or emails, pretending to be legitimate British banks or trading firms. Irish authorities are actively investigating these cases and have recovered €2 million from one perpetrator. While cryptocurrency scams were once prevalent, they now constitute a smaller portion of investment scams. Instead, fraudsters are using fake banking websites and materials to deceive victims. Despite linking over 20 bank accounts in the UK to these scams, authorities have not dismantled the operation. The Bank of Ireland advises its customers to be cautious about individuals claiming to be bank employees pressuring them to make hasty decisions, a common scam tactic.
In Australia, banks report a significant portion of scams involving cryptocurrencies, with one bank estimating that one in three dollars lost to scams is crypto-related, possibly even as high as 40%.
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}