Bank of Ireland issues warning to businesses over ‘Live Chat’ scam to access bank accounts

Bank of Ireland has issued an urgent warning to businesses about a rise in ‘Live Chat’ scams that allows criminals to access bank accounts.

Fraudsters are calling customers pretending to be from Bank of Ireland, claiming that their account has been compromised.

They are then directing them to a live chat service or to download software to their computer, and asking for card details, online banking details and activation codes.

"Fraudsters are mainly targeting business banking customers with this scam, duping them into allowing remote access to their computers and bank accounts,” Bank of Ireland said.

The caller, pretending to be from Bank of Ireland, asks the customer to log into their online banking as normal and to go to another new website, saying this is “for a live chat service” or “to verify the customer’s PC”.

However, this new site allows the fraudster remote access to the customer’s computer, where they can see their screen and access all of their files and programmes.

The caller then sets up payments on the customer’s online banking, asking them to read out the one-time codes from their Bank of Ireland app to approve the payments.

Nicola Sadlier, head of fraud at Bank of Ireland said: “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. "

Bank of Ireland is advising its customers that if they receive a call from someone asking them to go to a website or to click on a link, to hang up straight away.

“Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC,” said bank, adding that anyone asking for a one-time code from a customer’s online banking app is a fraudster.

“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.”

Ms Sadlier also said customers should 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,” she added.

Reporting on:independent.ie