Bank of Ireland warns customers of ‘live chat’ payments scam

Bank of Ireland has warned of a new scam where fraudsters are duping customers into giving them remote access to their computers and bank accounts.

The fraud starts when a customer gets a call from someone claiming to be from Bank of Ireland and is asked to log into their online banking account.

The caller then asks the customer to go into a new website address, saying this is for a “live chat” service, or to verify the customer’s PC. However, it allows the fraudster to see the customer’s screen and access all of their files and programmes, the bank said.

The fraudster will set up payments on the customer’s online banking and ask the customer to read out the one-time codes from their Bank of Ireland app to approve the payments.

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The so-called live chat scam has already been reported by other banks in Europe, the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. However, Bank of Ireland said Irish bank account holders are now being targeted.

The fraudsters are mainly targeting business customers of Bank of Ireland at this time, it added.

The bank said that customers who get a call from someone asking them to go to a website or click on a link that they are sent should hang up.

“Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC,” it said. “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.

“We are urging customers, especially business customers, to be on their guard at this time,” said Nicola Sadlier, head of fraud at Bank of Ireland.

“Customers should take extra care right now when logging into their online banking to ensure it is a legitimate site. People are currently being directed to fake sites, receiving follow-up phone calls from fraudsters and then being convinced to allow remote access. This scam is multi-layered and the international nature of the scam shows that it has been highly effective for the fraudsters elsewhere.”