Over €22 million was stolen from members of the public using smishing or phishing scams last year.
The most common of these is a bogus text message with a link to a fake site - as criminals try to get hold of card details.
Everyone's been plagued with these fake messages.
It could be a pretend one from your bank, a delivery note from a bogus courier or sometimes a person pretending to be from your phone company.
In short, the aim is to take your money. They want your card details by making you log into a site pretending to be your online banking page or something of the sort.
Detective Superintendant Michael Cryan says the website links in these messages are fake but convincing - he says never ever click on them.
"Some people are caught at the wrong time and click on the link. We send the message out to not click on links."
Detective Inspector Mel Smyth says these fraudsters are sending messages with a bit of a scattergun approach in the hopes that someone will respond.
He says the criminals will even phone the victim pretending to be a staff member to ask for more login information:
"The victim is under pressure, they're flustered, they're afraid they'll lose all their money, they're distracted - whatever it might be.
"They could be at work, they could have young kids. There are different things that can happen to cause people to do this."
Gardai have urged anyone who has had money stolen to report it immediately to both the bank and the local Garda Station.
