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CHICAGO (WLS) — Security experts are sounding the alarm about a rapidly spreading scam that masquerades as something familiar: a standard calendar invitation.
Despite its innocuous appearance, clicking on the link embedded in these invites can grant scammers full access to your computer’s contents.
In a recent report to the ABC7 I-Team, a local woman shared her close call with the scam, which nearly resulted in a significant financial loss.
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By clicking on the deceptive invite, individuals risk exposing sensitive information such as passwords and banking details, potentially allowing scammers to remotely control their computers.
Although the invitation may appear to be a simple event notice, it is, in reality, a “Remote Invite Scam” designed to exploit unsuspecting users.
Claudia Coffey clicked on a fake invitation from her laptop in Arlington Heights.
“You know, I like going to parties,” Coffey said. “And I opened the email because, ‘Oh, it’s nice lady. Would you mind going to the party.’ And then I clicked on the invite, and in the email, and that is when it takes over your whole computer. “
The email looked like it was coming from her friend, but it was really from a scammer, spoofing Coffey’s friend’s name on the email. By clicking the invite link, she was giving a criminal access to her computer and her saved passwords.
“It’s the technology is unfortunately terrible,” Coffey said.
The scammers then used remote access to Coffey’s laptop to sign into Coffey’s online banking. They sent about $2,400 through Zelle on her bank’s website.
Coffey says because she reported the fraud incidents immediately, Village Bank by Wintrust was quickly able to refund her the lost money.
Wintrust says it works hard “to help clients protect themselves from scammers and to support them whenever possible if fraudulent activity occurs.”
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“Miserable, like your life has been taken over and you have no control over anything anymore,” Coffey said.
The scammers also tried to send about $600 from her PayPal account. She unlinked her bank account from PayPal in time to stop that transaction, but Coffey says the money platform was asking her to give that $600 back to them.
“This is just very depressing and upsetting,” Coffey said.
After ABC7 reached out, PayPal told the I-Team she no longer owed the money.
Coffey’s hackers didn’t just dig into her finances.
“And then and then they took all my contact information and sent the similar invites to different events or different occasions, whatever each one had a different event,” Coffey said.
The bad actors then use information to try to fool friends.
Security experts at Check Point say the Remote Invite Scam is on the rise. Not only are people getting emails with invites, but invites can also be injected directly into a calendar.
“So those links can be malicious,” said Tony Sabaj with Check Point. “And a lot of security tools out there right now either cannot or ignore calendar entries as an attack vector because they’re mainly focused on email.”
Experts say people may not want to subscribe to “automatic calendar” updates, always hover over emails to see the full address and make sure it’s really from a known contact before clicking on anything from the email.
“Look at the actual email address not just the ‘from display name,’” Sabaj said.
Coffey says she ended up getting her laptop professionally scrubbed.
“Don’t click on anything ever,” Coffey said. “If you don’t know for sure exactly what it is. Just let it go. It’s not worth it.”
There are also remote hijack scams that can start with a pop-up ad on a computer, saying tech assistance is needed. When scam victims call the number listed on the ad, scammers try to convince them to give them remote access.
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