Scammers and AVG

[gordon_s1942]

Today there is a report in our paper of a local who when trying to sort out some computer problems rang a number they thought was for AVG but ended up calling a scammer instead.

When the number she called answered, a 'receptionist' answered and then she was then connected to another to assist her with the computer problem.

To cut to the chase, she was told her problems could be sorted if she signed up for 'Securetunes Suite System' at a cost of $398 which she did.

For her $398 she did get an Icon on her Desktop, not that it does anything.
Then she later received a bill from a company called Mycommerce in the USA and another company called 'Developerts' in India was to be her 'Support'.
None of the above fixed her computer and when she tried to call the number given for support,someone answered for about 3 months but now it just goes to 'message bank'.
The email address given has also been found to be useless as all messages sent have been rejected.

When contacted AVG says 'it is aware of Tech Support companies that leverage off advertising that offers "AVG Support"' and when they become aware of this being done they contact Bing/Google/Yahoo to remove the information immediately but by then people have been misdirected.
There was also the suggestion made that the number this person rang was legitimate but it had been 'Hacked' and 'redirected' to the scammers own telephones.

[wander_n_wonder]

We really need to be extremely careful these days. Scammers do their act in so many different ways. We can never be too trusting or else, we'll be sorry in the end. I do hope AVG looks into this particular situation closely to avoid further problems later on.

[Philquad]

if people were educated enough about security they wouldnt be paying $398 to some random in the 1st place

[gordon_s1942]

Phil, unfortunately this woman thought she was dealing with AVG because of the presentation of the webpage led her to believe she was ringing AVG about a computer problem she had so its not a case of being 'Security Educated' at all or being asked to pay a fee, even $398 'to some random' because most companies, even genuine ones charge through the nose for programs or assistance.

When my 'Free Trial' of Kaspersky ended on this computer I tried to follow the prompts to buy the license and I ended up all over the place along with being quoted several different amounts for the same one year license and I never found the one I was promised if I renewed it online from the trial either.

Some years ago I bought an audio tape of a group from a local garage and when I played it, it was of very poor quality and I returned it and tried another which was equally as badly recorded.
It turned out the Garage had bought this section from a 'traveler' who presented himself as a Rep of the distributor but in fact, all the tapes were Pirated.
We carefully checked all the printing on the sleeve and they were identical to the genuine ones being sold by the same name distributor these fakes were copied from.

[mikelouis]

This is why I stick to Microsoft Essentials. First it is free, uses less computer resources and its support is available. I stopped using these other antiviruses after continuous disappointments like the once mentioned above.