Hardly a day goes without an email from some financial institution, shop or stranded person looking to relieve me of my hard-earned income. On first reading, many of the requests appear genuine. I’ve nearly fallen for the one about “unusual activity” on my account and how I urgently need to login and check that all is right. Bad idea. Sometimes the “stranded person” email arrives in the name of a person I know, making it hard to ignore. God forbid if someone I know was genuinely stranded – I wouldn’t be much use to them.

This week I had a call from James McConnell from Navan telling me about a new scam that’s targeted at small businesses. James has a lovely house that he rents out to visitors, with a good few coming from overseas. A couple of weeks ago, he received a booking from an American couple who wanted to rent his house for a week. With the booking confirmed, the American couple told James that they would be sending him a cheque but that it would be in excess of the €425 rent he required. They explained they were given an allowance by their employer and it was up to them how they wanted to spend it.

That seemed logical to James, until the cheque arrived and it was made out for €3,500. James immediately smelled a rat.

“I would have understood if they wanted me to return an excess of a few hundred euro but not €3,075. I was afraid this was part of a money laundering scheme or a scam of some sort,” he told me.

And to confirm his suspicions, didn’t he get two similar bookings via email in the past week.

“Both wanted to send me more than the week’s rent and return the balance to them. It’s a scam that appears to be targeted at small businesses like mine.”

Had James not recognised that he was being scammed, he would have lost out on three fronts: no rental income of €425, loss of over €3,000 in the refund and the house falsely booked for a week when genuine visitors would have been turned away. That would have been a huge blow to any small business.

So be warned. No matter how plausible the thing sounds, if you are being asked to forward money to someone you’ve never met for a service or custom you’ve never received, it’s bound to be a scam.

If you are looking for something invigorating to do this bank holiday weekend, could I suggest a trip to Clare to take in the Loop Head Walking Festival. There’s a series of guided walks for all levels over the four days from Friday to Monday. The scenery is truly magnificent and the walks are very manageable. Just Google “Loop Head Walking Festival” and all the information you want is there.

I’m looking forward to being in Athlone on Sunday night for the National Hall of Fame Awards, when 19 stalwarts of the livestock and sheep breed societies will be honoured. On Saturday night, Ballycoogue Macra na Feirme celebrates its 50th birthday in the Woodenbridge Hotel, Co Wicklow. I come from that part of the country and it’s a huge achievement for a crossroads community to have kept Macra so strong for so long. Congratulations to all involved.