SCAM AT LARGE - BEWARE ! VAT ?

[Roger]

 Hi. Earlier Wed PM, my Wife had a call from a purported 'VAT' person . . . . 

He asked 'I understand you sell in the market ?'  (yes)
'How much do you sell ?' (not much)
'Do you have a Shop or rent a space ?' (rent a space occasionally).
'How much p.a. - is it B150K ?' (nowhere near that). 

Then he asked her to hold on . . . . 

Later Wife went to the ATM and B4300 had gone from her account - leaving NIL as she moved B56,000 last week ! Wife then went to the Bank and they said it's happening quite often and sometimes large sums have been taken.

 Calmer this morning, the Wife now remembers being asked to click an Icon and her phone then went 'wrong' for a while. So that explains it - that was an App downloaded ! 

She's off to the Police Station this morning to register the event, then to the Bank, (Govt Savings Bank) to close her account..

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She is worried about the phone - can that access be repeated ? Can she bar the caller. Is she still at risk ? 

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Any advice at all would be appreciated Guys. And take care . . .  

Thank you.

[Coolkorat]

Mobile phones are very vulnerable and these scams getting more convincing. I think I would be tempted to do a full factory reset on the phone and start from scratch. Or, if the phone is nearing the end of its life, get a completely new one and set it up manually rather than importing the data from the old phone. You should be able to back the old phone up to a laptop so you have any data. you need (contacts etc.).

I have AVG antivirus on my phone and laptop as well as Surfshark VPN on the phone, laptop and TV.

[Roger]

Thanks CK. Believe it or not the VAT man rang up again today      I think Pui melted his ears   

It would suggest to me that they probably haven't uploaded a hidden App.

We'll see. Will take more precautions  . . . .

[Roger]

BTW thanks CK.

We found the uploaded App on the phone and deleted it. Pui also went to the Bank and the App for internet Banking was deleted and a new one then installed. Hopefully that's it ! ATB