Virus infection after bank fraud (telephone scam)?

gterr

Hi there,


I've been helping a neighbour who has been the victim of one of those bank scams via telephone. (She got a phone call, allegedly from her bank's fraud dept., phoned them back using the telephone number on the back of her debit card. Fraudsters had kept the phone line open so intercepted her callback etc.)


This one is a bit different because my friend has a business, and the fraudsters asked her to place her debit card into her own credit card payment machine and type in her pin number. Anyway, her own, real, bank have taken over and are dealing with it. They've told her that her laptop will have been infected and will need wiping clean and reloading with her software from scratch, to be sure to get rid of the virus. She's taken the laptop to a computer firm to have this done.


To tide her over I've lent her one of my spare laptops so that she can continue to run her business.


My question is: when I have my laptop returned, will it also be infected and will I also have to wipe it clean? Is there a way of scanning it with something robust enough to detect whatever type of virus is likely to have been used in the fraud? (I don't even know what type of virus we are talking about here.)


Grateful for any help.

closed

a, she could have wiped it herself, probably in 5 minutes.

b, unless you have more information, wiping was probably not necessary at all. Where does the laptop even enter the story? and even if it does, where does a virus enter the story.

c, business machines should be backed up, macrium reflect is cheap, as are external hard drives.

--

impossible to say whether it will come back with a virus, but a backup (macrium is free for home use) and a virus scanner will resolve that if it happens. I don't see how her getting a phone call in the past, could infect your laptop now.

gterr

closed wrote: »

a, she could have wiped it herself, probably in 5 minutes.

No, she couldn't. She lacks the necessary expertise.

b, unless you have more information, wiping was probably not necessary at all. Where does the laptop even enter the story? and even if it does, where does a virus enter the story.

The instructions to wipe her laptop came from her bank's fraud department.
There may well be more than I have given here. At this stage she's understandably shaken and unsure which of the many phone conversations she's had recently were with her bank and which with the fraudsters. The phone call in which she was told to wipe the laptop was definitely genuine, though.

c, business machines should be backed up, macrium reflect is cheap, as are external hard drives.

She backs up regularly to an external hard drive.


Thanks anyway.

closed

factory restore is one or two keypresses, instructions in the manual, no expertise required - that's probably what the shop will do, unless it's a cowboy, and it comes back with half the drivers missing.

Nothing you posted suggests a virus, just a phone call - banks and helpdesks often don't know what they are talking about when they say these things.

a proper backup, ie a disk image, would mean she wouldn't have to do either of the above, even if infected, she'd simply restore from backup

DCFC79

gterr wrote: »

The instructions to wipe her laptop came from her bank's fraud department.
There may well be more than I have given here. At this stage she's understandably shaken and unsure which of the many phone conversations she's had recently were with her bank and which with the fraudsters. The phone call in which she was told to wipe the laptop was definitely genuine, though.

I know your posting on behalf of a friend but whats the link between teh card terminal and the laptop, a physical link as in well is there 1, are they connected in anyway ?

Usually what you desribed in the first part of your post is followed by the fraudster asking for security details with the customer thinking they are speaking to the bank.

gterr

DCFC79 wrote: »

I know your posting on behalf of a friend but whats the link between teh card terminal and the laptop, a physical link as in well is there 1, are they connected in anyway ?

Usually what you desribed in the first part of your post is followed by the fraudster asking for security details with the customer thinking they are speaking to the bank.

As I understand it, it was the 'classic' telephone scam where the fraudsters keep the line open and get the customer to call the number on the back of their debit card to "reassure themselves" that it's a genuine call from the bank. She was then asked to place her debit card into her merchant services credit card payment machine and enter card details and pin number. The credit card machine is either connected by ethernet to the same satellite broadband service as her laptop, or by phone to the same phone line the fraudsters were using - I don't know which, I'm afraid. I don't know her setup exactly: she runs a guesthouse and takes cardholder-not-present payments, and she has internet banking for the accounts into which these payments are made.


Her internet banking facility has been suspended by RBS fraud department until they are satisfied that her laptop is virus-free.
Whether or not this is necessary is irrelevant: it's what the bank requires of her.


I usually help her out with easy computing problems but I am well beyond my existing experience when it comes to trying to fathom what has possibly happened in this case, which is why I am asking here. I'd also like to know whether my spare laptop, which I've loaned to the lady, will need a clean install or something else once I get it back.



And, Closed, it's all very well saying it just requires a "couple of presses of a button and reference to a manual". You need to accept that not every computer user has the same level of competence as yourself.

closed

you need to accept, that we are trying to help, although it's probably too late now.

If that's an accurate description of what happened, then the bank are being ridiculous, and she is wasting money and time and potentially losing data by sending it to a shop. If they insist on a virus scan report, do a virus scan. They wont have a clue if it's had windows reinstalled or not.

She put her own debit card into a payment machine, that could not possibly cause your machine, hers, or any other to get infected.

Has any money actually gone missing? If she put her own card, into her own machine, wouldn't her own business get any money transfer?

gterr

closed wrote: »

you need to accept, that we are trying to help, although it's probably too late now.

If that's an accurate description of what happened, then the bank are being ridiculous, and she is wasting money and time and potentially losing data by sending it to a shop. If they insist on a virus scan report, do a virus scan. They wont have a clue if it's had windows reinstalled or not.

She put her own debit card into a payment machine, that could not possibly cause your machine, hers, or any other to get infected.

Has any money actually gone missing? If she put her own card, into her own machine, wouldn't her own business get any money transfer?

Thanks for your response. No money has gone missing though the bank were able to see that money from three separate accounts had been aggregated together into one account. The bank assumed that, had they not intervened, a single large transfer out would have occurred. I know no more than that, I'm afraid.