Did you receive an unsolicited email from Norton Antivirus indicating that you have been charged hundreds of dollars? Is there an invoice or phone number to call to ask for more information? Be extremely careful, the email is likely a scam. Norton Antivirus has been a popular computer virus protection program for a long time, and scammers know that many people use or have used Norton Antivirus software in the past.
By impersonating a well-known company such as Norton Antivirus, scammers can trick consumers into believing they received a legitimate email from a reputable business. Don’t fall for their tricks.
Sample of the Norton Antivirus Email Scam
Here is an example of a Norton Antivirus scam email:
Subject: Norton Antivirus Invoice
Dear Customer:
Your invoice-MCQE-50xxx2 for $360.56 is attached.
The Amount has been successfully charged.
Here are your Invoice Details:
Receipt ID: TRWQ-00452
Status: Paid
Mode: - Online
Product- Norton Antivirus
Thank you for your business - we appreciate it very much.
Sincerely,
Norton Representative Name
Any Issues with the Invoice, Get in Touch Now on: +1 (70x) 6xx-0xxx (Toll Free).
How the Norton Antivirus Email Scam Works
There are hundreds of variations of the Norton Antivirus email scam, so the wording of the email scam that you receive could be very different. You may just get an attached invoice with no wording in the email, or it could be an email with no attachment. The format and style of the scam vary, but the goal is the same. These scammers want to steal your money and your information.
The high charge amount for the service and the phone number for further assistance are there to play on your emotions. It is natural for people to get upset by the high charge that they did not expect, and then some people will call the phone number that is answered by con artists because they are acting based on their emotions. If that happens to you, then the scammers will try to steal your information over the phone or possibly seek remote access to your computer to steal even more. This scam costs people just like you a lot of money, and many people have lost thousands of dollars by granting remote access to their computers to cybercriminals.
What to Do If You Receive the McAfee Scam Email
The Federal Trade Commission offers some good advice regarding how to protect yourself from the Norton Antivirus scam and similar types of scams. The FTC also has suggestions for what to do next if you shared personal information or granted the scammers access to your system. Visit the FTC website at: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-report-tech-support-scams
Signs to help you identify the Norton Antivirus scam and similar scams might include an email address that is not actually from Norton Antivirus (such as a Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail, or other free email account address that is frequently used by scammers), potential grammatical errors such as misspelled words, impersonal words such as “dear subscriber” or “dear customer”, and anything else that could possibly seem suspicious. Scammers are getting more sophisticated all the time, so you need to be vigilant in guarding against these types of scams.
To learn more about common scams, you can access additional articles on the Guide Change blog. We also offer a scam quiz and a downloadable guide to common scams that you may encounter. If you would like to share a story about a scam that you have encountered, feel free to email us at info@guidechange.com.
[Note that comments for our blogs are now disabled because scammers can leave comments. Scammers like to leave comments about how you can get your money back from a scam so that they can steal more of your money or information.]
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