What is a Tech Support Scam?
McAfee Tech Support Scam refers to communication frauds wherein a scammer claims to offer a licit technical support service & use scare tricks to make victims pay for unnecessary technical support services like fixing a manipulated device, platform, or antivirus problems.
McAfee Tech Support Scams have become an industry-wide issue & currently gaining momentum on the Internet.
How a McAfee Tech Support Scam works?
In the event, scammers call the victims & claim to be technical experts or representatives of the renowned companies like Apple or Microsoft. Other scammers bombard the victim’s screen with pop-up warnings of a detected virus or malware.
After earning the trust of innocent users, they ask the users to install certain applications that provide them remote access to user’s device. Eventually, the experienced scammers misrepresent normal system output & ask the victims to pay for non-existent problems.
A Tech Support Scam is executed in three main ways- via cold calls, pop-up messages on the system & incorrect search engine results.
New Tech Support Scam from McAfee
The McAfee scams are not new, however the former scams simply redirected the victims to McAfee’s site using an associated link. Following this redirection, the scammers would generate illicit commission when the victims make any purchase on the site.
The new variant of the McAfee scam aims of gathering Credit Card Details & personal information of the victims.
How Does the Scam Operates
Last week a user reported about a new Browser based tech support scam that bombarded his computer screen stating, “Your McAfee subscription has expired on 18th October 2018.” The page had a “Renew Now” button which prompted the user to click on it.
After a user clicks on “Renew Now”, a small form appears on the screen that asks the user to enter his Credit Card Details in order to renew the McAfee subscription. It is then followed by a form that asks for user’s personal information.
As per the reports, the information collected by this scam includes of victim’s name, e-mail, Credit Card Number, Expiration Date of card, CVC (Card Verification Code), Entire Address & Contact Number.
The collected information is stored to the page: “https://onlineav-shop.com/ajax/Default.aspx/SaveCardInfo”.
Once the details are entered by the user, the page redirects the user to a thank you page which asks the user to call a toll free number displaying on the top. Calling the number will help the user to download the active subscription on the devices instantly.
When the user calls the number, he is connected to an agent that claims to be from a “Premium Technical Support” Corporation which is partnered with McAfee & provide best McAfee protection.
The agent then requests the user to provide them remote access to their devices in order to help the user to install software. Once the device is remotely accessed, the agent claims that the credit card information entered earlier did not go through & that the user needs to purchase the software through McAfee’s sites. The agent will then open the browser & opens a disguised URL that appears to be legit.
Each time a user calls this number; he is informed that the submitted credit card information was not saved due to a server error & that the user would have to make a purchase from McAfee’s site.
The scammers are not only earning illicit commissions on subscription purchase, but also stealing sensitive & credit card information of the users. The information harvested by the scammers may be used to charge other purchases & perform online frauds using user’s credentials.
You are strongly advised to contact your credit card company/bank if you have come across any such scam or unusual activity.
What to do if you were scammed
- Change the passwords on every account that uses the shared password including your computer, financial institutions and password-protected websites.
- Contact your bank/credit card company and ask them to reverse the charges that you have paid.
- Run a full system scan & uninstall applications that the scammers have asked you to install.
- Download & update authorized security software and delete anything that the software says is causing a problem.
