Bank of Ireland warns of new 'live chat' payments scam targeting Irish customers 

Fraudsters are now using live chat channels to access remote PCs and customer banking information, it has been warned

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

Bank of Ireland has warned of a new wave of fraud targeting customers across Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand which is now in operation across Ireland.

Fraudsters are now using a 'Live Chat' scam to gain remote access to private PCs and banking information, according to the lender.

The scam begins when a customer receives a call from someone reporting to be from Bank of Ireland asking them to log into their account. 

The caller then asks the customer to access another, new website address, saying that this is “for a live chat service” or “to verify the customer’s PC.” In reality, it allows the fraudster remote access to the customer’s PC where they can then see the customer’s screen and access all of their files and programmes.

Finally, the caller will set up payments on the customer’s online banking and ask the customer to read out the one-time code from their BOI app to approve the payments.

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

"Fraudsters operate a range of scams that target people, all designed to access people’s bank account details or dupe them into transferring money," said Nicola Sadlier, Head of Fraud at Bank of Ireland. "This new scam is of particular concern."

“We are urging customers to take extra care 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."

Bank of Ireland has advised people who do receive calls of this nature to "just hang up," reiterating that "if someone asks you for a one-time code from your online banking app, they are a fraudster."

"Never allow a caller to take remote access of your PC," it continued. 

"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."