The Central Bank of Ireland has issued 10 warnings to consumers relating to unauthorised firms offering financial services, such as investments services and loans, illegally.
The companies include: Worry Free Loan; Havbell DAC; Eire Rates; European Deposits; Irish Investments; Euro Investor; Compare Savings Ireland; Compare Fixed Investments; Davy Select Private; and Irish Rates.
Worry Free Loans and Havbell DAC are alleged to be examples of advance fee scams where a payment is sought upfront prior to providing a loan after which the loan is never provided.
The rest of the companies sell themselves as investment firms but are not authorised to provide such services by the Central Bank.
In the case of Davy Select Private, the firm is said to have cloned the details of a Central Bank authorised firm, J&E Davy, and has been seeking to pass itself off as the legitimate firm “in order to deceive consumers”.
“It should be noted that there is no connection whatsoever between the Central Bank authorised firm and the fraudulent entity,” the Central Bank said.
The bank has asked anybody with information relating to these firms to contact them.
According to recent data from FraudSMART, almost €100m was stolen from customers by fraudsters in 2023. Card fraud accounted for 95% of the total number of fraudulent payment transactions with just over €35m stolen.