The Bank of Ireland has issued an urgent fraud alert, cautioning that businesses are being targeted with so-called ‘Live chat’ scams.
Bank of Ireland is now specifically warning UK businesses about a recent increase in ‘Live chat’ scams.
According to the update from the Bank of Ireland, fraudsters / bad actors are mainly targeting business banking customers with this scam, by allegedly duping them into allowing “remote access to their computers and bank accounts.”
Bank of Ireland further noted that the fraudsters / scammers are calling customers pretending to be from Bank of Ireland, “claiming that their account has been compromised, directing them to a live chat service or to download software to your computer, and asking for card details, online banking details and activation codes.”
According to the Bank of Ireland, here’s basically what happens:
- The customer gets a phone call from someone claiming to be from Bank of Ireland.
- The caller asks the customer to log into their online banking as normal.
- The caller (fraudster) then asks the customer to go to another new website address, saying that this is: “for a live chat service” or “to verify the customer’s PC”, but in reality it allows the fraudster remote access to the customer’s PC. The fraudster can now see the customer’s screen and access all of the customer’s files and programmes.
- The caller will set up payments on the customer’s online banking and ask the customer to read out the one-time codes from their BOI app to approve the payments.
The Bank of Ireland said that should you get a call from someone who asks you to go to a website or to click on a link that they will send to you, “just hang up.”
Bank of Ireland also cautioned that you must never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC.
And should someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster.
The Bank of Ireland added that you should “never, ever share those codes with anyone, even if they say they are from Bank of Ireland.”
And be very careful when “logging on to your online banking website.”
The safest thing is to type in the website address yourself or “to log in through the main Bank of Ireland website at bankofireland.com.”
Nicola Sadlier, Head of Fraud, Bank of Ireland said that they’ve had an increase in reports into our fraud line in recent days so they want to “warn businesses in particular to be extremely alert to this scam.”
Nicola also mentioned that fraudsters try to convince people to allow access to their PCs via a fake ‘live chat’, where they can then “access business customers’ online banking, and other personal files and information.”
Nicola further noted that you should never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC.
They added that should someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster.
They also reminded that you must never share those codes with anyone, even if they say they are from your bank, and should you “get a call like this, just hang up.”