GARDAÍ have warned people in Limerick to start looking over their shoulders as a new form of theft emerges in the city.
‘Shoulder surfing’, according to Garda John Finnerty of Henry Street Garda Station, is a part of a new wave of tech-driven crime that criminals are using to target unsuspecting victims, enabled by increased use of digital payment methods, especially smartphones, being used to pay for goods and services.
“Criminals are now targeting late night revellers who may be out socialising in bars, night clubs, and restaurants,” Garda Finnerty warned.
“While the victim is paying for items, the criminal is looking over his or her shoulder to see the passcode that the victim is using to open their phone. This is commonly known as ‘shoulder surfing’.
“The criminal will then memorise the passcode … and subsequently target the victim and attempt to steal the phone.”
Garda Finnerty says that shoulder surfing crimes usually happen “late at night” when a victim’s “defences are low”.
“Once the phone is in the hands of the criminal, he will try and access the victim’s online banking app,” he explained. “Consequently, the criminal will access the banking app and transfer funds from the victims account to their own account. This occurs in minutes and could include large sums of money.”
To help combat the wave of shoulder surfing, Garda Finnerty issued a number of tips, including the use of different pin codes throughout different apps on mobile devices (especially those handling sums of money) and punters being “very conscious of using their mobile phones in public”.
“This is inconvenient, but it provides more protection from online fraud,” he said
