Dublin: Garda killed while on speed checkpoint duties
A garda (Irish police) officer has died after he was hit by a motorcycle whilst carrying out a speed checkpoint in County Dublin.The incident happened in Lanestown, in the north of the county, shortly before 13:00 local time on Sunday.A motorcyclist, a man in his 30s, was seriously injured in the incident and has been taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where his condition is described as critical.The officer, who was 49, died at the scene and was a member of the Roads Policing Unit.
The area has been preserved for examination, with traffic diversions currently in place.Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Chilling 32-year mystery behind first victim of Ireland's 'Vanishing Triangle' that remains unsolved to this day as man 'obsessed' with missing woman is arrested and released without charge
A man who had been identified as a suspect in the killing of one of the many women who went missing in Ireland's so called 'Vanishing Triangle' 32 years ago has now been arrested and released without charge after questioning - as the baffling mystery remains unsolved. New Yorker Annie McCarrick was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry on March 26, 1993, after telling a friend she planned to go to the Wicklow Mountains for the day. The 27-year-old, who had just moved over from the US that year, was the first of eight women who would go on to disappear in the local area over the next five years. In 2023, the Gardaí upgraded her case into a murder inquiry after receiving an undisclosed new lead. Last week, a man in his 60s, who reportedly knew Annie well, was arrested on suspicion of her murder; but was released after 24-hours of questioning without charge. The businessman, who lives with his wife, denied any involvement in the disappearance. His status was only upgraded to official suspect in the last two years. The arrest was the first made in the case and came after officials took a statement from a 'close associate' of the suspect. The associate remains 'of interest' to the overall investigation, according to The Irish Independent. Gardaí reportedly believe the two men were together on the weekend Annie went missing and there are now questions over their alibi. The Irish Sun also revealed police seized a number of electronic devices, including laptops and phones, at the suspect's home on Thursday morning. Officers cordoned off and searched a house in Clondalkin, southwest Dublin, as part of the murder inquiry. The current occupants of the house have no connection to the case. Gardaí brought a cadaver dog, who is trained to detect signs of human remains, into the search at the rear of the property where excavation work had taken place. The man who was arrested for questioning was flagged to officers as a possible suspect immediately after the New Yorker's disappearance in 1993. Annie's friends claimed they were concerned about the man as she had told them she felt 'pressured and harassed' by him - and claimed he had hit her on one occasion. They alleged he became fixated on the belief that Annie was involved with a man who was well-known to him and he became jealous. However, they believed that the information they provided was mishandled and not adequately considered during the initial inquiry. According to The Irish Sun, Gardaí are planning to re-interview former colleagues of the businessman after concerns were raised about his alibi on the day Annie went missing. A source told the publication: 'Any evidence at the moment is just circumstantial. 'One strand is that one of the suspect's former colleagues had concerns about his lack of empathy after Annie's disappearance. 'This person made it clear that the suspect didn't appear to be too grief stricken considering how much he was obsessed with Annie.' The investigation had previously worked on the theory that the last sighting of Annie was at a Glencullen pub called Johnny Fox. In 2023, a source told the Irish Mirror: 'Some significant information has come forward which has seen the case being upgraded from a missing persons case to a murder. 'In 2018, the case of Deirdre Jacobs was upgraded to murder and searches of land took place after that in October 2021. 'The same could happen soon in Annie's case. They have already earmarked certain areas of interest which they want to look at.' During a press conference, Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll revealed that investigators are keen to find find a handbag Annie was seen carrying in CCTV footage captured shortly before her disappearance. The last known CCTV footage of Annie shows the missing woman queuing in the Allied Irish Bank on Sandymount Road shortly before 11am on the morning of her disappearance. In the clip, can be seen wearing a longline coat and her leather bag is hanging off one shoulder. Because the bag was never found, investigators believe the unknown assailant may have chosen to keep the item. Detective Superintendent Eddie Carroll urged people who may know anything about the whereabouts of Annie's bag to speak with officers. 'I am appealing to those persons, 30 years later, to please come forward and speak to the investigation team,' he said during the conference. 'I want to speak with any person who has any information on the large brown handbag which it is believed that Annie was in possession of when she went missing.' He also urged anyone who had spoken to, or had any interaction with Annie around the time of her disappearance to come forward. 'I want to speak to any person who met, spoke with or had any interaction with Annie McCarrick on the 26th March 1993 or subsequently,' he said. 'There is a person or persons, who have information on the disappearance of Annie McCarrick and her murder on or about the 26th March 1993 and who haven't yet spoken to Gardaí or who may have already spoken to Gardaí but were not in a position to tell everything that they know at that time.' Annie McCarrick was born in Long Island but moved to Ireland in 1987 and began studying in Dublin. She went back to America in 1990 to get a master's degree, but returned to Ireland in January 1993 to settle. During an interview in 2016, her mother Nancy told RTÉ's Crimecall programme: 'When she found Ireland, her whole life really changed.' On March 26 1993, Annie left her apartment in Dublin to spend the day at Wicklow Mountains, going alone after inviting a friend to go with her. After she was spotted that afternoon getting the bus to Glencullen, there was an alleged sighting of someone matching her description at Johnnie Fox's Pub. The woman spoke with a man who was in his twenties and wearing a waxed jacket. He has never been identified. After the alleged sighting at the pub, Annie was never heard or seen again, with many people believing she had been murdered - but the case has never been solved. What is Ireland's 'Vanishing Triangle' and who were the eight women who disappeared? In 1993, America-born Annie McCarrick disappeared while living in Dublin. Her case was the first of several that would become known as the Vanishing Triangle disappearances. In each case, a young or middle-aged woman vanished suddenly from the eastern part of Ireland and no trace of them was ever found. Police officially linked six of the disappearances and launched a joint investigation called Operation Trace in 1998, before the crimes stopped. Annie McCarrick. Born in New York in 1966, she lived there until relocating to Ireland in 1987. At the time she vanished she was living in the Dublin area. The last confirmed sighting of her was in Enniskerry in 1993. McCarrick was later reported drinking at a pub in Glencullen with a man who has never been identified. She has not been heard from since. Jo Jo Dullard. Born in 1974 in Callan, Jo Jo was also living in Dublin around the time of her disappearance. She was travelling from Dublin to Callan in July 1995 when she vanished. Jo Jo made a phone call from a payphone in Moone and witnesses said she was later seen leaning on the back of a dark coloured Toyota, talking to someone inside. The car and driver were never traced. She remains missing. Fiona Pender. A life-long resident of Tullamore, where she was born in 1971, Fiona went missing in August 1996 while seven months pregnant. She was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend. In 2008 a small cross bearing her name was found along the The Slieve Bloom Way, but her body has never been recovered. Fiona Sinnott. Born in Rosslare, Fiona was living in nearby Broadway when she vanished in 1998 at the age of 19. She was the mother of an 11-month-old. The last confirmed sighting of her was at a pub with friends, which she left around midnight accompanied by ex-partner Sean Carroll, the father of her daughter. He says he slept on her sofa, and when he left the next morning she was in bed planning a trip to the doctor. Ciara Breen. She was living with her mother in Dundalk when she vanished in 1998, aged 17. Her mother recalls the pair going to bed around midnight before she got up to use the bathroom around 2am and found Ciara gone. Ciara's window was open and left on the latch, suggesting she planned to return, but she never did. Deidre Jacob. The Newbridge native was studying in Twickenham, London, but had returned home for the summer before vanishing in 1998. She was spotted within just yards of her parents' house by multiple witnesses, but never made it home. A seventh case, not included in Operation Trace but often referenced alongside the disappearances, is that of Eva Brennan. Eva vanished in July 1993 shortly after a family lunch in Terenure, Dublin. She was depressed prior to her disappearance. She was known to visit her parents every day but failed to show on the next two occasions, so her father went to her home and found her gone. She has not been seen since. Similarly, Imelda Keenan vanished from Waterford city, where she had been studying. She was reported missing on the morning of January 3, 1994 last seen in a pair of leopard-skin trousers and a denim jacket. She told her fiancée that she was going out to the post office and was last seen walking past a bridge walked past the William Street Bridge in Waterford city. SUSPECTS None of the Vanishing Triangle women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the crimes, save geographical area and the suddenness of their disappearance. One potential suspect touted in the past was Larry Murphy, who was jailed for the rape and attempted murder of a young woman in Carlow in 2001. Murphy had kidnapped the woman, put her in the boot of his car and taken her to the Wicklow Mountains where she was repeatedly raped. He then tried to strangle the victim to death but two hunters happened upon the scene, saved the woman, and helped identify Murphy as the attacker, leading to his arrest. Murphy has been questioned over the Vanishing Triangle cases but has always denied being connected with any of them. The alarm was raised when Annie did not show up at a part-time café job the following day to collect her wages, and failed to go to a dinner party. In July 2020, Michael Griffith, a lawyer her father John hired in 1993, now joined forces with Kenneth Strange, a former FBI agent, and Annie's uncle, John Covell, as well as an Irish private investigator, Brian McCarthy, to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Annie. The American team came up with the theory that Annie was not at Johnnie Fox's Pub, in the village of Glencullen, as previously believed. Instead, they have identified a new 'prime suspect' after becoming aware of a witness statement given to Gardaí in 1993. Mr McCarthy said they had identified a new suspect whom they think Annie was with in a café in Enniskerry. The witness, who has since died, alleged that Annie had been in the café with a man who fit the description of a suspect McCarthy has identified. Mr McCarthy called the sighting 'more crucial than initially thought'. There have been several attempts to uncover the person behind Annie's disappearance. Gardaí have carried out extensive investigations into the disappearances but so far have had no breakthrough in solving them. In 2008, the Garda brought a team of FBI agents to Ireland to review the evidence they had accumulated. These experienced profilers, who specialise in investigating serial killers in the United States, concluded that the unknown killer matched the profile of one Larry Murphy, who was jailed for the rape and attempted murder of a young woman in Carlow in 2001. Murphy had kidnapped the woman, put her in the boot of his car and taken her to the Wicklow Mountains where she was repeatedly raped. He then tried to strangle the victim to death but two hunters happened upon the scene, saved the woman, and helped identify Murphy as the attacker, leading to his arrest. Murphy has been questioned over the Vanishing Triangle cases but has always denied being connected with any of them. Meanwhile in 2014, retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey claimed that a member of the Provisional IRA may have killed Annie. At the time, he told RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme that the American student met the IRA man, to whom he gave a fictional name Manus Dunne, at Johnnie Fox's pub in Glencullen in the Dublin mountains. Mr Bailey said that he 'started bragging about different exploits', naming colleagues before 'realising the enormity of what he had done'. The retired detective sergeant wrote that Manus offered a lift into town but 'drove her up the mountains where he killed her and concealed her body behind some bushes'. He said the information from a 'very reliable source', was a story that 'needs to be checked out'. Meanwhile in 2018, police in Ireland began investigating whether a married father-of-two shot dead after murdering a student had been involved in Annie's killing. Mark Hennessy, 40, was killed by officers hunting for missing Jastine Valdez, 24, near Dublin in 2023 before her body was discovered. Garda sources told the Irish Times that Hennessy's DNA profile would be checked against historic and recent disappearances to see if he was a serial killer. As part of that review, officers reexamined the infamous Vanishing Triangle cases of the 1990s, where a series of young women disappeared without trace over the course of five years, to see if Hennnessy could be responsible. The victims include Annie McCarrick alongside Fiona Pender, Deirdre Jacob, Jo Jo Dullard, Fiona Sinnott, Eva Brennan and Ciara Breen. Hennessy would have been aged just 16 when Annie disappeared in 1993, but her case is still being included in the review. Former detective Alan Bailey, who investigated Annie's disappearance 30 years ago, has said that his 'one regret' is that he was never able to find out what happened to Annie and the other 'Vanishing Triangle' victims. What's more, the former detective said he is confident that Annie's murderer is still at large. He now believes the investigating team should speak with Murphy. The former detective claims he tried to interview Murphy while he was a prisoner at Arbour Hill - but the criminal refused. At the time, Bailey says they had to respect his decision not to be questioned - whereas officers are now able to get a court warrant to speak with prisoners. However, it has since been reported that Murphy did speak with officers as part of the ongoing 'Vanishing Triangle' investigations. In 2005, Murphy emerged as a 'person of interest' in the investigation into the murder of Deirdre Jacob. The 20-year-old, who had been studying in Twickenham, London, vanished outside of a post office - just yards from her parents house in Newbridge in 1998. In 2010, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that Murphy had been doing work for Deirdre's grandmother in her sweetshop at the time the 18-year-old vanished from Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Garda sources revealed Murphy was carrying out carpentry work at the shop, which Deirdre visited just hours before she went missing. In August 2010, Murphy was released from prison after serving 10 of his 15 year jail sentence.
BreakingNews.ie
2 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
How anti-immigrant activists tried to 'weaponise' Carlow incident with misinformation
Misinformation around a recent shooting incident at a Carlow shopping centre was "weaponised" by anti-immigrant activists and facilitated by social media algorithms, according to a researcher who monitors far-right activity in Ireland. On Sunday, June 1st, a 22-year-old man discharged a firearm inside a supermarket at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre, and later died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Advertisement He was the sole fatality in the incident, and the only other injury was a minor leg injury suffered by a girl who fled the scene in the ensuing panic. Within an hour, misinformation and conspiracy theories were rampant on social media. Far-right activists made a number of claims, including that seven people had been killed in the incident and that it was a terror attack. An hour and a half after the incident, Derek Blighe, the founder of the nationalist and immigration-focused 'Ireland First' party, posted on X: "Unconfirmed Reports of a mass shooting in Carlow, apparently 7 people including a child have been shot." He also shared a Facebook comment suggesting a nine-year-old had been shot. Advertisement The Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) is an organisation that is focused on helping communities to counter "hate and division", as well as far-right mobilisation. In an interview with H&CC research and communications lead Mark Malone said: "Claims from the likes of Derek Blighe, from Gavin Lowbridge (who runs the OffGrid Ireland account on Twitter spaces), they were framing the incident as a terrorist shooting related to their own anti-immigrant politics. This was all within a time period that allowed for no verification, and susbsequently what transpired was most of it was utter nonsense." Mr Malone also mentioned anti-immigrant activist Philp Dwyer, who drove to the scene in Carlow to film. "It was telling that Philip Dwyer was travelling back from an anti-migrant demonstration in Clonmel, heard there was something happening and landed up in Carlow, he describes himself as a 'citizen journalist'. Advertisement "He was quick on the scene. What he was pitching was 'I don't see any Irish people here, I don't see any white people here', literally after he interviewed a white Irish woman. "He's repeating these kinds of false narratives, openly lieng to the auidence, anyone can see the contradictions in what he's saying. I guess that's part and parcel of not being accountable to anyone, you can lie, contradict yourself, without consequences. "It's not like the base or his followers are interested in accuracy or truthfulness, it's more about virality and emotional content. The repetition of frames and narratives they want to push, regardless and completely independent of reality." He added: "Also telling was his approach to the Fire Service and An Garda Síochána at the scene. He started filming them and asked for information about the injuries, number of fatalities. The people on the ground probably didn't know what the details were at the time, and were reluctant to make any specific statements to a guy who evidently wasn't a journalist, was just some guy standing with a phone demanding information. When they made it clear they could not provide the information, Dwyer quickly moved to just verbally abusing them." Advertisement Mr Malone also pointed out that anti-migrant activists are often spreading misinformation with the aim of creating fear and division so that they can monetise it. They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "Content that creates fear or posits a 'this is what happened' in an emergency situation, spreads fast. "If you have a blue tick and your account is monetised, you can get money for views on your content. "Derek Blighe and Philip Dwyer rarely post anything without asking their followers for money. Advertisement "Content that rallies emotions like fear, anger and disgust often leads to people sharing something without critically thinking or examining it. "This is why we often see false rumours about sexual violence or child abductions as a way of priming people to be afraid of Ipas centres. "They would see something like what happened in Carlow as an opportunity to insert themselves in public conversation and to push their own narratives. "There's no clarification or removing posts afterwards, they move quickly from spreading false information, claims that the shooter was a migrant or that it was an Islamic attack, when it became clear that this was an Irish person involved, they just stopped." An Garda Síochána posted regular updates about the incident, including one which clarified the gunman was a white Irishman. 'Frenzied misinformation' Mr Malone said this route made sense given the "frenzied misinformation" spreading online, however, he said it is unlikely to make any impact with those who follow the activists. "There was a small pause before they returned with 'why are they saying it's a white man?' "In fact it is actually their own cycle of disinformation and propaganda which forced An Garda Síochána to make that statement. "The number of statements from gardaí that day was rare, but it was needed to limit the spread of this frenzied misinformation online. "There are pros and cons, it's understandable why gardaí approached it that way given the rapid response of reactionary voices trying to frame it in a particular way. However, regardless of what is put out the far-right will still find ways to weaponise, argue, twist, misrepresent. "Those that are interested in pushing fear and division will continue to do so, the problem is they're allowed to lie, spread misinformation, be racist, incite violence and fear, without pushback. They're allowed to amass large followings and raise income from social media platforms even when they're clearly breaking the terms and conditions of the platforms themselves." Mr Malone recently published research into the violence in Ballymena , and identified a Facebook group that was actively encouraging people to attack individuals' homes. He pointed to this as an example of how social companies need to do more to target misinformation that poses real life danger to people. "We can see that in the context of Ballymena where we reported a Facebook page being used to organise pogroms on a street by street basis, Meta said it did not break their terms and conditions. "A lack of serious action by the platforms is a huge issue. While individuals need to be held accountable for what they're doing, these companies have billions at their disposal and are taking no action when their platform is contributing to people being burnt out of their houses. "Look at Facebook in Myanmar, a UN investigation found that Facebook was culpable in the face of a genocide in 2016, almost 10 years later people are being burnt out of their homes in Northern Ireland and it's being openly orchestrated on the platform." While there was no followup violence caused by the misinformation around the Carlow incident, social media played a big role in the Dublin riots in November 2023. Mr Malone said incidents like this are inevitable without serious action from the likes of Meta and X. Recommender systems The H&CC has long advocated for the removal of recommender systems from social media. These algorithms direct people to emotive content, much of which promotes violence and racism. "I think there's the inevitability rather than possibility that something bad will happen and that social media platforms will be playing a significant role in that, we're already seeing it. "That's why we would argue there neeeds to be serious political action around the platforms both in terms of giving clear effect to agreements under the Digital Services Act and the recommender systems. "Those mistruths that are being created as viral content are not just shown to the followers of the people posting it, the algorithms designed by the companies are there to recognise highly engaging emotional content and to spread it as far and wide as possible. "That's where anti-immigrant influencers are able to utilise the way the platforms work to spread their content, which has no factual basis to it. "There is probably a trade off being made given the amount of taxes the companies bring in, but you cannot relegate safety within our communities to the demands of platforms." He said "greater political will" is needed to address the negative impact of social media companies and their recommender systems. "Another striking thing is the number of times and the speed at which platforms can get access to the Government in terms of demanding meetings and how often those meetings are held behind closed doors, with ministers or Dáil committees. "These platforms are supposedly being held accountable, but these meetings are normally held outside of public scrutiny. That needs to end." Tánaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Micheál Martin have spoken out against the prominent use of tricolours at anti-immigrant and far-right demonstrations, which have been become more widespread in Dublin, Cork and towns across the country in recent years. Mr Malone said this attempt to link far-right ideas with Irish history is imported from similar movements in Europe, the UK and the US. People wave tricolours at an anti-immigrant protest in Dublin city centre "Much of what we hear coming from the mouths of the anti-immigrant movement in Ireland are reactionary British ideas with an Irish accent. "I'm not saying there has not been anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland before, but it's very clear that the modus operandi, the phrases, the language and discourse, has a much greater relationship with English fascism and British nationalism than it does with any historical Irish nationalism or republicanism that has existed. "This handing out of flags is well funded and centrally organised, trying to create a specific asthetic, this myth that these movements that have existed since around 2016, and coalesced around Covid, that they have some sort of lineage going back to 1916, they cleary don't. "In our research of their communications since 2016, they are primarily with British nationalists and English fascists. It's clear to us why the likes of Tommy Robinson and others are retweeting this stuff. They share the same world view, the flag is just a prop to share this false link to 1916. "In the North, the anti-immigrant activisits are mobilising around the term 'Love Ulster', here it's 'Love Ireland'. The importation of islamaphobia. "The raison d'etre of these movements is lifted from international spheres. They are even looking to forge alliances with fringe loyalists. "What we're seeing is some of the key actors in anti-immigrant mobilising have very extreme politics; white supremacy, neo nazi, islamophobia. "There is a distinction between people who are maybe fearful of difference, that's not an abnormal experience many people have that, but when we see people explicitly pushing white supremacist politics. Not just going to marches but live-streaming, actively organising people in local communities to stoke fear. "Propogating this myth that there is this link to historical Irish republicanism, part of what we want to do in our work is to smash that myth." 'A small minority with a large megaphone' Mr Malone said the far-right in Ireland is "still a small minority with a large megaphone provided by social media". He pointed to the "complete rejection" of anti-immigrant candidates in the recent general election, but warned that moving political discourse further to the right could still occuer. He said this is something politicians should be aware of, and made particular reference to human rights concerns over recent deportation flights from the State. Ireland Facebook being used to coordinate racist attacks i... Read More "We've already seen the Minister for Justice doing this macabre tweeting about deportation. The National Party won't be complaining about that. "We're seeing stories of people being deported after turning up for their regular calls to the Garda station which they're meant to do as part of their terms and conditions, committing no crimes and following up on what they're being asked to do, and yet they're being lifted and put on deportation flights. "Potentially the desire to shape numbers is affecting how people are being arrested and then deported, that is a concern. "Even though the organised far-right is very small, the impact it can have on the mainstream parties can be significant. It's the role of all of us to remind them, look at Europe where centre right parties take the clothes of the far-right... they get a hiding at the ballots."
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Funeral scams: ‘It's hard to imagine a more callous form of fraud'
A Facebook post shares a link to the live stream of a funeral service, or to a fundraising page set up by the family of the deceased. Clicking on that takes you to a separate page where it asks for your card details, and explains there is a £10 fee to watch the virtual funeral, or requests a donation. You make the payment but nothing happens. That's because it's a scam, with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) recently sounding the alarm over a disturbing type of fraud that sees victims share personal information, or tricked into transferring money. Katherine Hart, the CTSI's lead officer for doorstep crime, says: 'It's hard to imagine a more callous form of fraud.' She adds: 'What's particularly upsetting is that victims often feel they can't report what's happened for fear of adding further stress to grieving families. That silence is exactly what these criminals are counting on.' Virtual funerals became common during the Covid pandemic and continue to be popular, as they allow friends and relatives who can't attend in person to pay their respects. But they have become a target for online scammers who often home in on deaths that have been in the media, or those of young people, as they know there will be a lot of public interest. The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) says the scam has been circulating for two years and is happening across the UK and Ireland. As many victims do not report what has happened, it is hard to gauge the number of cases, but the trade body says that anecdotally they continue to rise. Fraudsters are scanning publicly available funeral notices and creating fake Facebook profiles, posing as family members or friends of the deceased, according to the CTSI. The criminals then contact mourners with bogus links to funeral live streams that demand payment, or set up fake donation pages, often on trusted fundraising platforms. Sometimes they send friend requests to people connected to the original site which, if they accept, can give them access to their photographs and details. After clicking on the live stream link, mourners are prompted to pay. The fake link then causes heartbreak as the individual may be missing a genuine live stream, but is also upset by the fact that they have given their card details to a scammer. Don't hand over any money. Andrew Judd, NAFD chief executive, says that, as a rule, funeral directors do not charge for livestreaming. The public should be 'extremely wary of any external links supposedly promoting one and asking for money', he says. 'Similarly, for pages seemingly fundraising, or asking for donations, instead of clicking, always check with the family or the funeral director to see whether it is legitimate.' 'If a funeral is being livestreamed, a funeral director will be able to provide the genuine link and is always happy to be asked if anyone has concerns.' Embarrassed victims often don't tell anyone, but Hart says that 'silence is exactly what these criminals are counting on,' adding: 'We need people to stay vigilant, share warnings and report anything suspicious.' The CTSI reiterates that you should never be charged to attend a funeral, whether in person or via live stream. You should only donate through official, verified channels, and should check with the named funeral director or celebrant if unsure, it adds. On social media, be cautious of friend requests or messages from unfamiliar profiles, even if they appear to be mutual friends. If you think you have given you card details to a fraudster, contact your bank immediately. While trying to raise awareness of the scam, the CTSI says it needs the public to 'speak out, report concerns and protect others from becoming a victim'. If you or someone you know has been affected, and you live in England and Wales, you should contact Action Fraud via its website or by calling 0300 123 2040. Otherwise, call Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000 or Consumerline in Northern Ireland on 0300 123 6262.
