Scammed by McAfee

[StephenB]

I don't think you ever spoke to BT, and you didn't speak to McAfee either.

I did, because subsequent calls had a record of whom I spoke to, both BT and McAfee, what time and I had the feedback surveys to fill out. The BT link to McAfee is in an email, I've used it several times to protect three other machines.

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[Growltiger]

I did, because subsequent calls had a record of whom I spoke to, both BT and McAfee, what time and I had the feedback surveys to fill out. The BT link to McAfee is in an email, I've used it several times to protect three other machines.

So where did you get the phone number from? Do you have that web page? What was the phone number?

 

[StephenB]

I phoned 150 from a landline, it directs you straight to BT. They had a record of my call, and the caller I spoke to. They've reimbursed my account with £15 for my trouble. McAfee also have a record of my call to them and that's where the grey area is, the caller I spoke to said he referred me back to BT, which he didn't. BT said I shouldn't have been diverted to McAfee.

I don't know why the screen snip isn't showing showing my BT/McAfee pic.

 

[Growltiger]

View attachment 730766

I phoned 150 from a landline, it directs you straight to BT. They had a record of my call, and the caller I spoke to. They've reimbursed my account with £15 for my trouble. McAfee also have a record of my call to them and that's where the grey area is, the caller I spoke to said he referred me back to BT, which he didn't. BT said I shouldn't have been diverted to McAfee.

I don't know why the screen snip isn't showing showing my BT/McAfee pic.

OK. That is very odd.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Sounds like a disgruntled employee who had either recently resigned or knew he was on the way out.

Another vote for Defender/Security Essentials here. It's not the same Windows Defender that Microsoft launched on Vista, it's a lot more useful now.

 

[Matero]

Another vote for Defender/Security Essentials here. It's not the same Windows Defender that Microsoft launched on Vista, it's a lot more useful now.

This! Stop wasting money for third party ‘security’ software, those just mess your computers, in the end, and hogs computer resources you could use for productive work.

First, familiarise yourself with the idea of admin user and normal user. Don’t use the admin rights / work as admin user unless really needed, e.g. when installing new software. Work or use your computer always as a normal user with limited rights to make changes to your computer. This will help a lot. Some users even don’t use virus scanners when they work like this. Definitely with MacOS no virus scanners needed, just close the firewall.

With Windows, enable the security features of its own. And you’re good to go. 99,9% of users are safe this way. The rest are not reading photo forums.

Just my humble opinion

 

[Stanga]

First, familiarise yourself with the idea of admin user and normal user. Don’t use the admin rights / work as admin user unless really needed, e.g. when installing new software. Work or use your computer always as a normal user with limited rights to make changes to your computer.

What you suggests is fine for virus attacks that wish to install something or make changes to your PC. There are however other forms of attacks as well. One is data stealing or remote keylogging, which can be done from a website you are viewing or your browser is linked to at the time. Malwarebytes is the one I use to combat those types of attacks. It's the best I know of for that purpose.
There are also other virus and trojan installer that only install themselves when you boot up your PC. They can get round the Admin rights. This form of install and attack is often used to attack on-site networks. I have also seen it used to lock out a PC and them issue a ransom demand in a pop up screen.

 

[StephenB]

The conclusion: well Paypal have reimbursed the money I paid out for the scam. In the dark hours of last night a thought suddenly came to me (this happens when you're old), the advisor at McAfee asked me to put my landline phone on the hook, he said he needed to sort a few things out and he would ring me back, within a minute he had indeed rang me back, his voice sounded the same and gave the same name, it was then he took control of my machine and all the shit started. Whether it was the same guy or not I have no idea, if it wasn't they both sounded the same and had the same accent. It sounds a bit of a palaver to fiddle £29.99, or was control of the machine the bonus? I have no idea, but it's all over now (as Mick Jagger sang), the machine has been reset, my card has been replaced and the passwords have been changed on all my money accounts. The End (hopefully )