Security

[BobDeeGee]

I have been advised to contact BT as my broadband provider. I was inadvertently drawn into a scam yesterday by an unsuspecting neighbour. As she didn't have a laptop I let her use my one. Will the scammers have compromised the security of my broadband connection. I can't see anyway of contacting BT about this security subject? Thanks Bob

[gg30340]

Who told you to contact BT?

If it was an email purporting to be from BT, it is the email that is the scam. 

You will need to give more details of what you or your neighbour has done before more useful advice can be given, 

[BobDeeGee]

My neighbour contact Nationwide Bank and they advised her to advise me to contact BT as my BroadBand supplier.

As my neighbour didn't have a PC or laptop so she asked me a favour if she could log into my laptop, as the scammers who she thought were PayPal customers services requested her to use a laptop, the scammers then took control of my laptop, I know it sounds crazy, but I had a frantic but intelligent elderly neighbour following the instruction of someone who she thought was legitimate PayPal fraud team. My neighbour then logged into her nationwide account on my laptop so that Paypal could refund her the money which she believed was a fraudulent takeover of her PayPal account.

My concern is whether the scammers have installed malware on my laptop that can track activity on my broadband?

Does this explain the situation?

[imjolly · Accepted solution]

Then run malwarebytes and see if that finds any problems

This is a problem on you laptop and nothing to do with your Internet connection and BT

[BobDeeGee]

Thank you both Sages for your assistance. I did run malwarebytes (free version) this morning and it didn't flag any threats.

[gg30340]

The scammer might have infected your computer with a virus/malware or stolen passwords and financial information.

Stealing the information is relatively easy for the scammer to do once they have access to your computer. Your usernames and passwords may be stored on your browser and it does not take any effort for a scammer to retrieve them. Obtaining the information does not require installing malware on your computer and therefore it can not be detected with a malware scanner or antivirus program.

As you have already carried out a scan for malware, you should consider doing the following :

• check that no forwarding addresses have been added to your email account.
• reset your passwords and particularly if you use the same password over many sites. 
• let your bank know your financial information might have been stolen. They will monitor your accounts.
• make sure you update your anti-virus software and that it is still turned on.

If you don't feel confident/competent in checking your computer you could also get an IT professional to check it for you.

[BobDeeGee]

Thank you for the extra comments. I'm having the laptop hard drive cleaned and the system reinstalled by an IT professional.

[afrikaan]

This sounds more like she was scammed with the Paypal ruse. Basically the scammer will log onto her account remotely then make the screen blank while in the background draining her account. I would suggest you ask your neighbour to check her account balance is OK