Teamviewer safety for connecting computer

janicekey

someone has asked me to connect to his computer using teamviewer. I have some concerns about the security of my own computer.

1) if I connect to his computer using my computer, whether via installed teamviewer or portable teamviewer, can he reverse the connection and see the data on my computer? I have seen these youtube videos of scam baiters who reverse the connection and see the scammer's data and this has me concerned.

2) can he hear the sounds in my surroundings? for example, let's say while I am connected, I call my bank and give the representative my social security number. Can he hear it?

3) can he hear the sounds coming from my speaker? for example, let's say I am playing music from my laptop speaker while connected to his computer. can he hear that?

JoshP

Hello @janicekey

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the TeamViewer community!

Safety and security is always good to have in the front of your mind - especially when allowing access to any of your devices. Let's discuss your questions:

TL;DR Never allow anyone you do not trust to connect to your devices.

1) if I connect to his computer using my computer, whether via installed teamviewer or portable teamviewer, can he reverse the connection and see the data on my computer? I have seen these youtube videos of scam baiters who reverse the connection and see the scammer's data and this has me concerned.

Reversing a connection is possible. This setting is found in the Remote Control Toolbar, under Communication.

With every TeamViewer connection, however, the computer being viewed will always know if there is a remote connection, due to the presence of the remote toolbar on the bottom left side of the screen.

It can appear both maximized

and minimized

If this occurs, your view of their computer will disappear, indicating you are no longer viewing them, but rather they are viewing you.

In this case, you can end the session by clicking the X (1) or reverse the view again by clicking the monitor icon (2).

However, please note: This feature is not available in the free version of TeamViewer. As mentioned in this post regarding TeamViewer and scams, scammers do not buy licenses for such usage. They use the free version of software like ours to make the connections.

Should you ever encounter a malicious user attempting to scam you or others using TeamViewer, here is our report page:

https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/trust-center/resolute-misuse-prevention/

I have seen videos similar to what you mention, where the scambaiters reverse connections unbeknownst to the scammers - in these cases, I believe they have confirmed they are using other software along with TeamViewer in order to make such unsuspecting connections. It is not possible to connect or view any remote device without explicit consent from the remote user when using TeamViewer.

2) can he hear the sounds in my surroundings? for example, let's say while I am connected, I call my bank and give the representative my social security number. Can he hear it?

It is possible to use the mic attached or on your computer with TeamViewer - however, by default the microphone is turned off when a connection is started.

Your audio settings are found in the same toolbar as above. Please note: The remote user cannot unmute your mic. The remote user cannot see nor affect your device's audio controls. The grey bar is all that appears.

In the event you need to make a sensitive call, it is a best practice to end any remote sessions, video calls, or other means of communication, to ensure complete confirmation that no one is eavesdropping on you.

3) can he hear the sounds coming from my speaker? for example, let's say I am playing music from my laptop speaker while connected to his computer. can he hear that?

It is possible to play audio sounds from the remote computer. This is found in the same toolbar as the answer to question 1.

By default, this is usually turned off. It should also be noted that connections between some different operating systems do not produce any computer sounds of the remote computer.

As with the answer to question #2, In the event you need to make a sensitive call, it is a best practice to end any remote sessions, video calls, or other means of communication, to ensure complete confirmation that no one is eavesdropping on you.

Quite a bit of information, I know! All of that said, the most important thing is this:

⚠We advise TeamViewer users to be careful and to not grant access to your devices to anyone you do not know or trust ⚠

If you are unsure of a user, or have reason to suspect they want to act maliciously, do not allow any kind of connection.

As mentioned above, if such a connection ever occurs, you can report it here:

https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/trust-center/resolute-misuse-prevention/

I hope this helps re-assure you on connections through TeamViewer, and if you have any other concerns please do not hesitate to reach out!