I think I have been the victim of a webroot scam..

  • 3 March 2014
  • 9 replies
  • 24 views

I think I have been the victim of a webroot scam..

9 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Can you give us more details about what happened?
Userlevel 7
@Supercheif, please let us know what happened and why you think you may have been scammed.
 
I have never known Webroot to act in an unethical manner, and I am sure they would like to know if a third party is doing anything to harm the Webroot brand. 
Userlevel 5
IIRC there was one reseller doing some weird stuff a long time ago but webroot took care of that situation and I'm sure they'll do the same with your issue.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I think I found the missing piece.  @ also used the report abuse function and added this additional info:
 
"I am trying to post a problem that I have just gotten 7 days after adding the new Webroot for 3 years. It is a Trojan and Microsoft wants to charge me 70 bucks now for anti trojan protection. What can you tell me?"
 
superchief - you don't have to pay Microsoft support.  You can just contact our support and we'll help you remove the trojan for free.
The Microsoft folks if that was in fact who I was talking with said:
1. That Webroot only took care of Viruses.
2. Said that I should call "The Best Computer Care" @ 1 866 866 3696 and ask for Stefan at X-148 and for $70/year they would take
care of the Trojans, that Web Root could not do that?
 
Thanks for your help, I am waiting to hear from WebRoot regarding this issue.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
@ wrote:
The Microsoft folks if that was in fact who I was talking with said:
1. That Webroot only took care of Viruses.@2. Said that I should call "The Best Computer Care" @ 1 866 866 3696 and ask for Stefan at X-148 and for $70/year they would take
care of the Trojans, that Web Root could not do that?
 
Thanks for your help, I am waiting to hear from WebRoot regarding this issue.
Thanks for letting us know and let us know how support does!
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
The Microsoft folks if that was in fact who I was talking with said:
1. That Webroot only took care of Viruses.@2. Said that I should call "The Best Computer Care" @ 1 866 866 3696 and ask for Stefan at X-148 and for $70/year they would take
care of the Trojans, that Web Root could not do that?
 
Thanks for your help, I am waiting to hear from WebRoot regarding this issue.
@ - Something sounds fishy there. Did you call Microsoft or did they call you? Microsoft normally does not single out a company to recommend to customers and also know how much they charge for their services.
 
Check out this link about how bad these scammers can be:
http://www.bbb.org/blog/2013/07/bbb-alerts-residents-to-microsoft-tech-support-scam/
 
 
Userlevel 5
yea that's def not a legit Microsoft communication, it's a classic scam.

"best computer care" is not a real Microsoft product/service.

Referring to endpoint security programs as an antivirus is something of an anachronism. Webroot, and all other modern "antivirus" software address a broad spectrum of malicious programs (imo webroot does this better than the rest, but that's not really relevant to the topic of this thread).

Even industry professionals will still refer to programs designed to protect a computer from malicious code as AVs as much out of habit as anything, and while 10+ years ago there was a valid distinction between an AV and anti malware it's just not true in the modern era, even macafee (imo the worst product on the market...) protects against the whole gambit of threats. Scammers try to use this outdated perception and play word games as part of social engineering attacks in order to convince unsuspecting people into paying for the privilege of downloading what often is malicious software to fix a "problem" or fill a capability gap in the victim's security that isn't really there to begin with.
Userlevel 4
Really? But really?

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