hung up on voice mail without leaving a message

Caller: SCAM/FRAUD

This number called my (older) colleague and claimed to be from "the security department of Visa and Mastercard". Fortunately she answered on her apple watch and I was listening and able to help.

Very convincing scam. Said that there had been 3 attempts in the last hour to transfer money to America from her account and was confirming that she wasn't trying to do that. When she made it clear she wasn't, they asked her to stay calm while they worked to cancel the transactions and transferred her to a second person (busy call centre noise in the background).

They were both adamant that they would never ask her to confirm any private details over the phone but wanted to ensure her computer was safe. Told her it was very important that she did Not log in to her online banking as this may cause an issue with the 'hacker'.

Then they asked her to download the "Anydesk" app and started giving directions for this via Appstore, claiming this was to protect her computer and check if there was an American IP address being used (claimed an American IP and repeated attempts at an unfamiliar charge was how they 'discovered' it may be fraudulent transaction).

Fortunately I was there listening and googling away - Anydesk allows remote access to your device. At this point, I started speaking and asked again where they were calling from, then why this app was necessary - again they tried to reassure they hadn't asked for personal details and it was to protect her computer. Then they got angry with me questioning whether they were scammers.

They then backed off on downloading the app (don't want you to do anything you're uncomfortable with'), persisted for a few more minutes with getting her to 'check' her own computer browser to 'see for herself'. This of course didn't work so they said they would send through instructions and call back - and hung up. Never called again.

We immediately called her bank directly who confirmed no issues with her account. And Visa and Mastercard are separate companies.

I expect they would have gained remote access to her computer with Anydesk and had her log in to her bank and used this to steal her money.

Hung up when i answered

Hung up when I answered