Remote access scams are increasing and when a scammer posing as your bank lures you into providing remote access to your bank account, the result can be disastrous.  In one instance, the scam started with a phone call from a scammer posing as an employee of Avast, a popular security software company.  The scammer told his victim that the company could not continue to provide services to him and that they would be refunding him $500.  The scammers then told him that they had mistakenly refunded thousands of dollars into his account and therefore needed to get remote access to his bank account in order to withdraw the excess amount “mistakenly” sent to him.  The victim fell for the scam and provided them remote access to his account whereupon they emptied his account.  By the time the victim realized he had been scammed and reported it to his bank, the money had been already withdrawn from both his bank and the bank to which the scammers had the funds in his account transferred.

TIPS

Whenever you get a phone call, you can never be sure who is really contacting you. Even if your Caller ID indicates the call is legitimate, scammers can use a simple technique called “spoofing” to manipulate your Caller ID so that the call looks legitimate when it is not.  It is highly unlikely that any company is going to call you to tell you that they are sending you a refund and even if one did, you could not trust that the call was legitimate.

Even if you thought that the call was legitimate, you should still hang up and call the real company at a telephone number that you know is correct to determine the truth.

Most importantly, never give anyone remote access to your bank account by providing your username and password.  In addition, you should use dual factor authentication on your online banking account so that even if someone got your username and password they could not access your account.

Finally, even if everything the scammer said were true, there would be no reason for anyone to give the scammer remote access to their bank account.  The person being targeted could refund the money himself or herself without having to give access to the account to a stranger.

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