Bank of Ireland Issues Urgent Fraud Alert on‘Live chat’scams

Bank of Ireland (BOI) has issued an urgent fraud alert, warning businesses about a recent surge in ‘Live chat’ scams. In the scams, fraudsters are mainly targeting business banking customers, duping them into granting remote access to their computers and bank accounts.

These fraudsters pose as BOI representatives, claiming that customers' accounts have been compromised. They direct victims to a live chat service or instruct them to download software, then ask for card details, online banking details, and activation codes.

Typically, the customers receive a phone call from someone pretending to be from BOI, who asks the customer to log into online banking as usual. The caller then directs the customer to a new website, allegedly “for a live chat service” or “to verify the customer’s PC.” In reality, this allows the fraudster to gain remote access to the customer’s PC, view the screen, and access all files and programs. The fraudster sets up payments on the customer's online banking and asks the customer to read out one-time codes from the BOI app to approve the transactions.

Bank of Ireland’s advice

• 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 to 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.

Nicola Sadlier, Head of Fraud, 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. 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.”