Amazon scammer

Hi there,

On Friday evening, a lady called my mum pretending to be from Amazon. She said that my mum was going to be charged for games unless she opted out, and that she could help to opt out but needed to connect using QuickSupport to her phone. My mum, who is elderly, unfortunately fell for the whole thing and gave her access to the phone with the code and all.!

When I found out, I checked the logs on her QuickSupport app, but wasn't too sure what to look for to see if they did anything maliscious. I could see they were connected to her phone for around 45 mins.

My mum doesn't have any sensitive info on the phone really, so I'm wondering is there anything they could have planted on it to record what she does since then, or some other kind of thing I'm not aware of? She has internet banking app, but even with access to the phone for 45 mins they wouldn't have been able to get in to that I'm sure.

She is using a Doro phone running Android.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks a mill

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

Esther

Hi @mrsmarygall

That´s a smart idea, but please do not worry. An ID change is not needed.

When having the QuickSupport app installed, a connection is only possible when your mother

starts the QuickSupport app and
allows access manually. The app will prompt a message asking whether she wants to allow remote access.

If the TeamViewer Host is installed on her device, you need to assign this device to one particular TeamViewer account (I recommend you to assign it to your account if you are the one who needs to connect to her device to help her in certain situations). Only this person holding/owning this account can access her device. There is not even a TeamViewer ID displayed. However - unattended access is possible for the one being assigned to the account.

I hope this info helps you :-)

Best, Esther

All comments

Esther

Hi @mrsmarygall

That´s a smart idea, but please do not worry. An ID change is not needed.

When having the QuickSupport app installed, a connection is only possible when your mother

starts the QuickSupport app and
allows access manually. The app will prompt a message asking whether she wants to allow remote access.

I hope this info helps you :-)

Best, Esther

mrsmarygall

Ok great thanks Esther :-)

Esther

Hi @mrsmarygall

First of all, I am sorry to hear what happened to your mum. Please send her my apologies and best wishes!

Unfortunately, there have been some instances of malicious use of our software, TeamViewer. If you are interested in reading a bit more about it, this article TeamViewer and scamming is a good starting point.

My recommendation is to report the scam via the form on this page to our security team: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/report-a-scam/

Please feel free to inform the police and the bank as well about the case.

Does your mom remember whether she went into her banking app? If so, I highly recommend contacting the bank informing them about the scammer and also make sure to change the password for her banking app/account. Just to be on the safe side.

It is not possible to have a stealth mode with TeamViewer: So there is no possibility that the scammer saw or opened something without your mom being able to see it.

Did the scammer install a new app on her device during the session? If so: Remove it from her mobile.

I hope this info helps you and once again: I am sorry for what happened.

Best regards,

Esther

mrsmarygall

Hi Esther,

thanks very much for your reply! Do you know if it’s possible to change the TeamViewer ID on my mum’s phone so at least the scammers will no longer have that ID? I searched online but couldn’t find any info on how to do this on Android phones

thanks ! :-)

william1379

@mrsmarygall wrote:
Hi Esther,
thanks very much for your reply! Do you know if it’s possible to change the TeamViewer ID on my mum’s phone so at least the scammers will no longer have that ID? I searched online but couldn’t find any info on how to do this on Android phones
thanks ! :-)

ya that can work bro .

RobinD1

I act as an IT advisor at my local library.

A lady came in where Amazon wanted to refund her £799 for an Iphone - I am unclear about the reason for this - she was persuaded to download your app and was sent a verification number and she clicked on this notification on her Ipad- when she brought it to me she had forgotten that she had done this but when I opened the app log it had recorded a lot of information from her first session and was continuing to log our session at the library once she was connected to the library wifi.

I reported this in her name on a different Windows computer to you - I could not send you the log because I decided that the safest thing to do was delete your application from her Ipad - she assures me that she did not go to any of her accounts bank or others during this time.

They were on to her for about an hour but she refused to give them her bank details so they rang off.

Was I correct in deleting the app? - is there any risk to her data?

Kind regards

Robin D1

Esther

Hi Robin,

Thanks for your message.

Great to hear that she refused to provide them any data! That´s a very important part.

Regarding the app: If she does not need the TeamViewer app regularly it is totally fine to just uninstall it and re-install it for cases it is needed. A re-connect is of course not possible - even if it was still installed, she would need to allow the session.

What´s maybe good to know for you: A full remote control of an iPad is not possible, "only" screen sharing. So the people who had a connection were only able to see the screen on the iPad but not able to do anything.

I hope this info helps you!

Stay safe,

Esther

Tish

Hi,

This same thing happened to my wife. The guys coaxed her to load the Quicksupport and then got hold of the device (Samsung J6) .

As she did not have any bank information, they deleted/copied her Whatsapp data, photos and contacts.

My wife is now paraniod about using the device ,and being spied on.

Can Teamview track the connection that was made to a specific id.

Surely a solution to this is not to give out this software without a subscription / fee and not give it out free.

This issue has caused so much stress to my wife and I that I had to join the this community to tell you about it.

Regards

Tish

Esther

Hi @Tish

I am very sorry to read what happened to your wife!

Please send her my best wishes and I hope she doesn´t have to experience such a call again. While the loss of the data is of course very sad, it is a relief to hear that the scammer did not get her bank account details.

My recommendation is, in any case, to inform the police about this situation. The police can for further investigation contact TeamViewer Privacy.

Also, we have some additional information about this topic here: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/report-a-scam/ and as you already know, here in our community.

I hope you can enjoy your weekend anyways a bit.

Stay safe,

Esther