Fraudulent scams jumped almost 80% in Ireland last year with victims being duped out of close to €16 million.
The increase has been closely linked to the upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Research led by the Banking and Payments Federation has found victims were tricked out of an average of €5,300 via a wide range of scams.
Chief Executive, Brian Hayes, puts the increase down to the massive number of calls by scammers.
"I think the volume of the impersonations that are now happening from the fraudsters have just multiplied.
"They work pretty much on a numbers basis. They start with one number, they change the number. All they need is one person to hook into their system.
"That's what we're seeing - a rapid increase in the volume of attempts to impersonate different officers or different agencies."
