Willie O’Dea T.D. has urged potential tenants to exercise extreme caution after it emerged that a sophisticated scam targeted renters in Limerick City on Friday 06 February 2026, involving a property in the O’Callaghan Strand area of the city.
Willie O’Dea TD said, “The situation is difficult enough for people trying to rent in the city without criminals trying to rip them off as well. Because of the pressure and competition for rental places, people are more likely to fall for a scam as they’re desperate to find a place to stay.”
O’Dea explained that a property in the O’Callaghan Strand area of the city was advertised as a house share on the prominent real estate and property rental website Daft.ie.
The advertisement was on the website for a number of days and people interested in renting the room were advised to email the landlord to organise a viewing.
On Friday afternoon, one of his constituents received an email regarding the property asking them to follow a link that appeared to lead to the official website of Daft.ie.
The prospective tenant was enticed to select a date and time to view the property. O’Dea outlined how his constituent was then asked to confirm their bank card details, to place a €2 deposit which would be forfeited in the event that they did not show up to the viewing. Revolut cards were not accepted.
Upon entering their bank details, the hopeful tenant was presented with a loading icon on the screen and an instruction not to refresh or close the web page.
The alarm was first raised that a cyber crime had taken place when the renter noticed that their bank card was blocked. After contacting the customer service phone line of their bank it became apparent that someone had attempted to access their bank account from another device.
Fortunately, in this instance the cyber criminals were unsuccessful in stealing any money thanks to the robust security measures of the bank. However, the renter was faced with the inconvenience of having to have a new bank card issued to them.
A security notice email was issued by Daft.ie after 8:00 p.m. that night warning people that this property may have been compromised and the advert was removed from the website.
Willie O’Dea TD continued, “This is a devious crime targeting a vulnerable group in society. It is unclear how many people may have been impacted by the scam in the time between they received the fraudulent email and the removal of the advert.
“With the increasingly elaborate nature of such cyber crimes which target individuals who have expressed an interest in renting a specific property, people need to be very cautious.
“As a general rule of thumb, you should never have to confirm your bank details to view a property. I cannot emphasise enough the need to be extremely careful with your bank details when online and to contact your bank immediately if you suspect that your bank account details may have been compromised.”
