26-07-2025
Wexford public warned of new scam involving Ebay, the post office and €1,000 in One4All gift cards
In the rural Wexford village of Wellingtonbridge, a local man had a close call with a group of scammers that seemed to be calling from some kind of call centre in India. The callers were convincing enough to persuade local man Anthony O'Neill to make a trip to the local post office while they remained on the line.
"Basically, these guys rang and said somebody was trying to get €600 out of my eBay account," he explains.
"They told me that they wanted to catch these scammers and that the situation required urgent action. I think I was passed between three people in total, all with Indian accents.
"They asked me how far I was from the local post office, and I replied that I was around 2km. Then they said they'd stay on the line while I travelled there and they'd need me to purchase four €250 One4All gift cards.'
At this point, alarm bells started to ring for Anthony. However, the callers had provoked a sense of panic and urgency.
"I was thinking about picking up a hurl and bringing it with me,' he said. 'I was thinking to myself, 'is someone going to be waiting for me at the post office or something?''
Eventually, Anthony got in the car and drove to the post office, all while the scammers remained on the line.
"They said that they don't need to talk to anyone, but that I should ask for the four gift cards,' he explains. 'When I asked the lady behind the counter and she saw that I was on the phone, she waved at me and asked me to put them on the phone. When I handed it over, they hung up.'
As it turned out, Anthony was not the only intended victim locally.
"She said that I was the third or fourth person who had turned up with the same thing," he said. 'I don't know what the next step was going to be, whether they were going to ask me for the numbers on the backs of the cards or what.
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"I was a bit suspicious, but these guys were very convincing.'
While suspect phone calls from unknown numbers and messages purporting to be from the likes of eBay, PayPal, An Post and a whole host of couriers have become alarmingly commonplace, separately Wexford County Council issued a warning on Tuesday about a different type of scam doing the rounds.
"Please be aware that people are being offered 'Free Tarmacadam' while Wexford County Council are undertaking road works,' a council statement said.
'These scammers are saying that the tarmacadam is left over and therefore 'free'. This is a scam and we'd appreciate if people would help us spread the word so that vulnerable people will not fall victim.'
