Bank issues alert to business owners over ‘live chat’ scam

Bank of Ireland has issued a warning to businesses about a recent increase in ‘live chat’ scams which try to dupe people into allowing remote access to their computers and bank accounts.
Fraudsters are calling customers pretending to be from Bank of Ireland and claiming that the business’s account has been compromised. They then direct people to a live chat service or ask them to download software to their computers as well as seeking card details, online banking details and activation codes.
The scam typically starts with the target getting a call from someone claiming to be from Bank of Ireland who asks the customer to log into their online banking as normal.
The fraudster then asks the customer to go to another website address, saying that this is “for a live chat service” or “to verify the customer’s PC”. In reality, the second website allows the fraudster remote access to the customer’s PC.
The fraudster can now see the customer’s screen and access all their files and programmes. They will quickly set up payments on the customer’s online banking service and ask the customer to read out the one-time codes from their Bank of Ireland app to approve the payments.
The bank has urged customers to hang up immediately on any such calls and reminded people never to allow a caller take remote access of their computer.
“We’ve had an increase in reports into our fraud line in recent days so we want to warn businesses in particular to be extremely alert to this scam,” said Bank of Ireland spokeswoman Nicola Sadlier.
“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.
“If someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster,” she added.