They almost got me...again!

[Trailrider #896]

I received an email stating that my membership renewal in McAfee was being renewed for $350. Since I haven't used any McAfee anti-virus or anything else in at least 15 years, I wanted to be sure they knew I didn't want it. But to cancel this, it said to call an 888 phone number. Foreign-sounding individual answered told me I had to go to an "Awesun" website, and they would step me through the cancellation procedure.  I followed along until it told me to download an .exe file. If you do that it will put some unknown execute file on you computer. I told the guy on the phone there was no way I would do that, and hung up and logged off all of it! That is the second time something similar has been attempted this week. I contacted my credit card company to be sure any charges were bogus, and they said no such charge had been made on my card! In other words, the whole thing was an attempt to get me to put something nasty on my computer.  

Be aware of such scams. Also, report any such attempts to your credit card's fraud division! 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

Not quite that bad, but I received a phone call from somebody wanting to give me "final expense assistance". When I told him I'm not dying, he hung up.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I get e,ais almost daily from McAfee and Geek Squad thanking me for renewing and to click on the attachment to see my invoice. Yeah, sure.

[Trailrider #896]

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I get e,ais almost daily from McAfee and Geek Squad thanking me for renewing and to click on the attachment to see my invoice. Yeah, sure.

I guess Geek Squad doesn't love me. I haven't gotten anything from them....yet. But I will be on the lookout! 

[Eyesa Horg]

3 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

I received an email stating that my membership renewal in McAfee was being renewed for $350. Since I haven't used any McAfee anti-virus or anything else in at least 15 years, I wanted to be sure they knew I didn't want it. But to cancel this, it said to call an 888 phone number. Foreign-sounding individual answered told me I had to go to an "Awesun" website, and they would step me through the cancellation procedure.  I followed along until it told me to download an .exe file. If you do that it will put some unknown execute file on you computer. I told the guy on the phone there was no way I would do that, and hung up and logged off all of it! That is the second time something similar has been attempted this week. I contacted my credit card company to be sure any charges were bogus, and they said no such charge had been made on my card! In other words, the whole thing was an attempt to get me to put something nasty on my computer.  

Be aware of such scams. Also, report any such attempts to your credit card's fraud division! 

I get one of those exact emails from McAfee about every 2 months. The phone number is a good clue as well as the fact you don't have that product to renew!

[Pat Riot]

Since some dirtbag or dirtbags hacked my medical insurance company and two of my former agency’s retirement systems. I get 40-50 spam emails a day, but Yahoo routes them right into a spam folder. 
My credit is frozen with all three credit agencies and my bank does a fantastic job of watching over my accounts. 
I do not worry about email notifications that the sky is falling. If it’s legit they’ll send a letter. 
Scam emails are best handled by Ignoring them and deleting them. 
The same goes for texts. If I get a text claiming I owe something to someone I ignore it. If it’s legit they will call or send a letter. If they do call I deal with it then. 
 

 

[John Kloehr]

The emails are easy to dodge, the phone calls... Another matter.

 

On very rare occasions, I  do have to answer calls from people not in my address book. Never ever say the word "Yes" to an unknown caller. Scammers will edit your "Yes" onto a different question.

 

For instance, "Are you John Kloehr? will become "Do you agree your owe Dr. SoAndSo $500?"

 

I get several bill collector calls a week. I do not have unpaid bills, nothing is in collections, my credit score is good and my report is clean. If I actually owed money, I  would  get a letter in the mail. So either these are bills owed by previous owners of my phone number (I have figured out several previous owner names), or they are bills not legally collectible  unless "renewed" with a "Yes" response.

 

The most recent is Planet Fitness membership renewal, at least twice a week. I have never been a member of any gym.

 

Legitimate bill collectors will send letters, as will some scammers.

 

I do get the Macafee emails and several others, attached invoices I do not open (often an obvious .exe file), email links which do not match the text (just hover over the link with your mouse), crap English (part of the psychology of sucking up getting had from an obvious scam after the fact), the from address has nothing to do with the claimed source (Goldman Sachs would never use some name at gmail.com), I am torn on one, a local credit union. And the number left in my voice mail is that credit union. I think this is for a previous owner of my number and i just do not want to get involved. I have no account there so I added the number to my address book and set ringer to silent. If he does woe them money, I hope they find him, and send hm a letter in the mail.

e real company 

 

Oh, on sail or postal mail, still treat it as suspect if not expected. Do not call the number they provided, search for the number the actual number. One example is fraud alerts on one of my credit cards. I get fraud alerts for lots of credit cards, rarely mine. I do not call the number in the alert, I get out my credit card and call the number on it. Most (but not all ) of those have been legitimate alerts and the charges are reversed (and I have to wait a few days for a replacement card).

[watab kid]

i never open any attachments on emails that randomly come to me , but i appreciate knowing about all these new scams , 

[Subdeacon Joe]

I'm surprised that you responded at all.  

 

Re phone calls.   I get legitimate phone calls from my health insurance company from various 800 numbers,  so I do answer them.   But,  when the call goes,  "May I speak with Joseph Lovell?"

"Speaking."

"Is this Joseph Lovell?"

"Speaking."

If the person pushes for a yes or no answer I just hang up.

 

Past that, any other questions I try to answer with anything but  "Yes."  Again,  if pressed with,  "I need you to say yes" when  I  give some sort of affirmative response,  I hang up.  

 

The calls I get about,  "Have you received your monthly benefit card yet?" I say, "No, not yet.   Please send it.  You have my number so you have my address."  Then I  hang up.

 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

My "Grandson" called, from a blocked number. and needed money for car repairs, after his vehicle broke down in Montreal.

I don't have any grandkids, but i gave him my cc number and when he called back, telling it wouldn't go through, I offered to give him cash, if he came to pick it up.

The ungrateful whelp cursed me and hung up!

That's It! He's out of my Will!

Oh Wait.

 

[Trailrider #896]

Another call from "McAfee". Still asked me to download something., I told the Indi-sounding person if they charged anything against any account/card, I'd report them to the Federal Trade Commission. Then I hung up!  

[Mossy Horn Gent]

Common scam. Go directly to your account to confirm. You can google the phone number to see a scam alerts.  Also, Google the area code to see if it is in another country.

[JD Lud]

Watch The Beekeeper with Jason Statham to learn more about internet fraud, companies, and the one man arm of justice …

 

 

[watab kid]

these days you cannot trust much , its sad but its the truth , ive found that ignoring a lot has served well , still had a few infringements but not to many 

[Gracos Kid]

On 5/17/2024 at 4:48 PM, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I get e,ais almost daily from McAfee and Geek Squad thanking me for renewing and to click on the attachment to see my invoice. Yeah, sure.

I subscribed to McAfee for years, and then learned that those who use AT&T for internet service automatically have McAfee for free.....I stopped paying the renewal and still have McAfee protection.......

[bgavin]

McAfee, like Norton, is piss-poor protection.
More about the money today... the FUD of identity theft is the big Norton selling point.

If you want active protection, subscribe to Malwarebytes but only when they offer a sale a few times each year.
McAfee and Norton don't even slow down the common bugs that afflict most users.
I have MWB on my own machines, my phones, and all my client's machines because it works.

[Texas Joker]

MWB is great! foldersize allows you to find bloatware and CCleaner keeps your registry tidy.

[bgavin]

I am a regular user of CCleaner portable.
The paid version of Malwarebytes is excellent for realtime blocking of harmful web sites.
A surprising number can be found on the various Fox News page.

I have MWB on both mine and the wife's machine, and both iPhones.

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

I got an email last week from a muzzle loading company I deal with stating they had miss calculated my shipping by $6 and change and I needed to send the extra money to a UPS account. I declined their offer to fix their screw up and deleted the email. Next day I got an email from the muzzle loader company informing me their shipper was hacked and the hackers had sent out emails to all past Customers trying to scam money from them and get the money sent to the UPS link that was in the email. To many #*%@&# crooks out there now days

[watab kid]

sometimes they even label things as just wheat they are but uts still what it is - i got one today that said it was phishing  , im just sure thats legit 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Ignore all such emails of any kind.

[watab kid]

yes and my phone blocks all calls that dont come from my contact list - they can leave a message but at least then i can decide if i want to call back , 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

They're getting harder to block in email. The last week or so I'm all of a sudden getting a lot of spam that I can't block because the sender's address is MINE!