Bank of Ireland said that the scam is primarily targeting its business customers.
Fraudsters call customers pretending to be from Bank of Ireland and claiming that the customers’ accounts have been compromised.
It then directs them to an online live chat service, or encourages them to download software to their computer.
They then ask for card details, online banking details and activation codes, putting them in a position where they can clean out the customers’ accounts.
It’s just the latest in a string of sophisticated frauds that banking customers are being hammered with, as scammers up the ante in trying to dupe clients and steal their money.
Nicola Sadlier, head of fraud at Bank of Ireland, said there has been a spike in the number of reports about the latest scam.
“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,” she said.
“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,” she pointed out.
She urged customers never to grant remote access to their computer to any caller, even if they claim they are from the bank.
“Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC,” she said. “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.”
The bank has detailed how the fraud works:
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.
Bank of Ireland has warned its customers to exercise caution when logging on to their accounts.
“Be very careful when logging on to your online banking website,” it said. “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”.
Earlier this year, Bank of Ireland said it would €50m in fraud prevention and protection as criminals become ever more sophisticated in how they try to steal from unsuspecting consumers.