IOS – TeamViewer QuickSupport – Scam Damage Assessment

iosiphoneremote control

I'm a freelance IT support tech. One of my customers was trying to install Amazon Music on his new TV, googled how to do it, found an 800 number and called it. Sure enough, a very helpful professional was glad to help him set it up. He was asked to install TeamViewer on his Iphone. He did and shared his ID, then clicked on "Allow". He relays that was as far as he got because the allow button did not seem to work, even though he tried it twice. The helpful operator then asked him to share the last two deposits made to his checking account so they could "confirm his account". Once the words checking accounts came up the spell was broken and he realized he had called a scam call center. My question is, the call lasted 11 minutes. Is it possible they copied content from his iphone without him seeing it? In other words, once connected into the iphone, can the scammer run an app in the background that the victim does not see on the screen? It is my understanding that IOS does not work like that (as you could on a PC). For example, could they have hoovered up his Onedrive docs? Or installed spyware?

Best Answer

I'm a regular licensed TeamViewer user and frequently lament the security inherent in the iPhone OS. In your case, it's a good thing. The phone app is for remote control in which the phone owner is controlling the other computer. The "allow" button doesn't work, because the remote scammer can't penetrate the iPhone. Additionally, when the connection is PC to PC, there are flags which appear during file transfer.

Unless passwords and login information was provided via voice, no OneDrive access is likely and certainly no spyware installed on an iPhone.