A woman who lost part of her savings by clicking on a phishing link allegedly from an employee of a financial organization was able to return the funds only after the intervention of media representatives. They were the journalists of WBZ-TV, who joined the solution of the problem after the refusal of Bank of America to consider a complaint about fraud.
A resident of the town of Norton (Massachusetts) helped her friend to deal with a complex refund in PayPal. It was at this moment that she received a call from a fraudster who introduced himself as an employee of a payment company. He said that the woman needs to click on the link that he will send her to confirm her identity.
Deciding that it was only a matter of red tape, the American woman clicked on the link, which turned out to be phishing. The malware downloaded on her phone allowed her to connect to it remotely, after which the criminals penetrated the banking application and withdrew $ 3,500 from the account.
"It's like giving everyone a key to the front door of your home," said cybersecurity expert Peter Tran. "They can use this key to open the door. It's the same story here. Probably even in a more dangerous form: clicking on the link opens remote access to the victim's device."
In the case of the Norton resident, the victim was her. After reporting the fraud to the police and Bank of America, she hoped to get help, but the wait dragged on. A few months later, her application was rejected altogether. Only after press intervention did a Bank of America representative tell WBZ-TV that the funds were returned, explaining that the applicant "recently provided additional information."
A resident of the town of Norton (Massachusetts) helped her friend to deal with a complex refund in PayPal. It was at this moment that she received a call from a fraudster who introduced himself as an employee of a payment company. He said that the woman needs to click on the link that he will send her to confirm her identity.
Deciding that it was only a matter of red tape, the American woman clicked on the link, which turned out to be phishing. The malware downloaded on her phone allowed her to connect to it remotely, after which the criminals penetrated the banking application and withdrew $ 3,500 from the account.
"It's like giving everyone a key to the front door of your home," said cybersecurity expert Peter Tran. "They can use this key to open the door. It's the same story here. Probably even in a more dangerous form: clicking on the link opens remote access to the victim's device."
In the case of the Norton resident, the victim was her. After reporting the fraud to the police and Bank of America, she hoped to get help, but the wait dragged on. A few months later, her application was rejected altogether. Only after press intervention did a Bank of America representative tell WBZ-TV that the funds were returned, explaining that the applicant "recently provided additional information."
