Irish businesses targeted with ‘Live chat’ scam

Urgent fraud alert: Firms being duped into giving hackers remote access to their computers and bank accounts.

Bank of Ireland has issued an urgent warning to its business customers to be alert to a scam that is duping businesses into letting hackers into their systems.

The Bank is warning businesses about a recent increase in ‘Live chat’ scams. Fraudsters are mainly targeting business banking customers with this scam, duping them into allowing remote access to their computers and bank accounts.

Fraudsters 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.

“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 Nicola Sadlier, head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland.

“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. Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC.  If someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster.  Never share those codes with anyone, even if they say they are from your bank. If you get a call like this, just hang up.”

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.

What to do

• If 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.
• Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC.
• If someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster. Never, ever share those codes with anyone, even if they say they are from Bank of Ireland.
• 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

• Bank of Ireland is welcoming new customers every day – funding investments, working capital and expansions across multiple sectors. To learn more, click here

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