Remote Access To Your Device

What Is Happening?

Scammers use vishing (voice/call phishing) phone calls to impersonate legitimate businesses; such as, your internet provider, an online retailer, money transfer service, or your bank, and insist they need you to download software onto your computer, phone or tablet, or remotely log into your computer to assist you with what may seem like an urgent and legitimate issue.

Red Flags

• You receive an email or text message regarding money movement or a debit authorization that you do not recognize immediately followed by a phone call
• The call is unexpected and they say that there is a suspicious order, transaction, payment or other urgent issue, such as a subscription renewal 
• They claim they need to access your account or device remotely or have you download software
• They request your account user name and/or password
• They provide a website for you to visit
• They ask for a verification code sent to you via email, text or phone call
• They ask for immediate payment while on the call or claim that test or dummy payments are required to create an account link or reverse an alleged overpayment
• They ask you to send cash, Zelle®, wire transfer, or purchase gift cards to cover an alleged overpayment to your account

What Can You Do

• Under no circumstances should you allow an unknown third party to remotely access your computer as a result of a phone call, email, text or pop-up message.
• Hang up the phone. An employee of a legitimate company will not object to you calling back at a number you are comfortable with. Contact that company directly using a phone number you know is legitimate; retrieved directly from their website or an official company document, such as a paper billing statement.
• If you receive a suspicious phone call with these red flags, do not use any phone numbers provided to you during the call, or from any emails or texts you may have received, do not use numbers provided by internet search engines, and do not rely on the Caller ID information on your phone; these can be spoofed or faked.