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I post this as a warning to other users. A couple of weeks ago I decided not to renew my subscriptions to McAfee and Norton for protecting my computer from malware and viruses. I did this because another provider was offering the same services for less than half the price that the two former outfits were offering.
Well, I was immediately bombarded (and still am being) with dire threats of what would happen to my computer if I did not renew. These were not polite requests to renew but Mafia-style protection demands, complete with total lies about the state of my security ...."your computer is infected with (350+ or 550+) viruses and if you don't renew we will not be responsible for the consequences". Emails repeated time and again.
I ignored these threats and a scan carried out by my new security provider this morning says there are no current infections but there could be a couple of areas that need tightening up, in other words the kind of thing you might expect.
My laptop is functioning just as normally as usual, with no dragons coming out of hiding.
I wonder what kind of ethics and honesty do my former providers adhere to. I have not checked to see if they are subsidiaries or adjuncts to any of the big companies like Google or Microsoft but I would not be surprised.
If you are thinking about changing security providers be prepared.
Comments
In my experience
They do eventually give up but unless you strip everything off your drives you will continue to get warnings flashing up.
Don’t let it worry you, life’s too short
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Did you uninstall those products?
If any residue of them is lurking on your hard drive then it could still be 'phoning home' to their mothership and that's why you are getting those 'ransom' demands.
Don't forget to unsubscribe from their emails and even delete your accounts on their system.
You may find that your system runs a lot faster without those CPU/memory hogs.
IMHO, all this stuff is just a scam to get $$$ from the unwary. Once upon a time then they might have been worth paying good money for but not now. There are free versions of at least one AV programme that did the job very well for me when I still used Windows.
In recent years, browsers (and plugins) have got much better at stopping the nasties at source.
YMMV
Samantha
PS,
If you know how, then create a rule in your email client that sends any emails from these companies straight to the SPAM folder.
Not sure it was the real companies
Receiving notices my computer was infected by I believe it as McAfee, I'd run a scan (different company) nothing there. By the third notice with the same MO I got pissed and requested my provider put a block on them. As far as I could tell they weren't legit. Check the return email and if it doesn't point back to a company without a lot of garbled gook in the middle it's a scam. MS (I hate MS) but they do provide built in protection into Win 10 and up. One may turn it off but why? It's hidden and it runs quietly in the background. Running Malwarebytes I'm pretty safe along with NoScript stopping Java and dozens of other popups unless I allow it to load a page I know is safe. I have a rule not to click on any popups. Wise Registry Cleaner straightens up my registry, cleans out the corruption, and makes sure everything is in order. I run it when I get an email from only God knows telling me I have a virus. Never happen yet. It can't clean completely if programs are open and running. I also tell it to clean registry when I first reboot to get a good cleaning.
No one is 100 percent safe from a virus if they can get one to click on an infected link or if the incoming email is infected. Simply opening an infected email will download a virus. No need to click on it to go to the web page it's pointing to.
I have two computers not allowed to touch the net. One is running Win XP and the other Win 7 both of which is for running software Win 10 doesn't support. Have I said I hate MS?
Hugs Joanne, don't touch it if you aren't sure.
Barb
Life is a gift, don't waste it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I have never really bothered
I have never really bothered with 3rd party firewalls and antivirus for years. I just stick to the window's built in stuff. When I use my older windows 7 laptop, I use a free antivirus software. I have nothing personal on there though. Never do banking or shopping on it.
I do have dual boot into Linux I'm. If I'm doing any banking I use that. My new Win 11 laptop, came with McAfee. It hates it when you try to uninstall it. It comes up with messages about you being unprotected etc.
I always run the free CCleaner before I shut down. Another decent free program is Toolwiz Care.
Leeanna
I'm more or less happy with WEBROOT because
I don't know how highly its protection is rated but it seems to do the trick (it also must keep the pterodactyls away- I havent seen one in months) + I love that it's unobtrusive.
This HP laptop I'm on came with a month of NORTON, absolutely free...
but there was this big fat ICON in the middle of everything that I couldn't
move down to the corner of the taskbar where it belongs and couldn't
get rid of even after my month expired; which is when the dire warnings
started coming. I had to uninstall everything Norton & unsubscribe
from their mailing list, several times, until they got the hint.
Nothing turns me off or makes me uninclined to buy
someone's product like a pushy hard sell!
The software protection I switched to is cheaper
and remains unobtrusive on my screen until it's needed.
And they don't insult my intelligence with alarmist warnings,
animated graphics during a sweep that make it seem like it's doing more than it is,
or ugly aesthetics (black+yellow CAUTION stripes, Aa-OOO-GA!!! horns going off, whirling red lights in sturdy little cages up on the wall...) that invoke a nuclear missile silo or the starship Enterprise's auto-destruct sequence...
~hugs, Veronica
And remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
Perhaps...
... your former providers need to discuss with your lawyer what compensation they owe you for the threats.
Uninstalled
Both "services" are uninstalled but after sulking for a while they ignore their own mechanisms and return to threaten me once again. So it's a simple "delete" to get rid of them. Another "service" that I have trouble with is Linkedin.
Since I retired years ago I am not interested in making new business contacts. I have lost count of the number of times I have uninstalled it but they keep coming back, offering to join me up with people I don't know and who don't have the remotest connection to my former business, or promoting people who I do know and wouldn't touch with the proverbial bargepole.