Windows Defender Renewal Scam

[Midpack]

Anyone else get this? I don't use Defender. It's a scam of course...

[FONT=&quot]Refund and Cancel the Renewal[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Dear Customer,

We Thank You on the completion of your 1 year Windows Defender protection plan with 24/7 technical support.

We have charged you $299 for the 12 months of subscription from your account. We tried to contact you on your registered Phone number for Queries
but could not get through.

Deduction of amount will appear on your account within 24 hours. If you have any question or wish to Refund and Cancel the Renewal

Please connect us on [/FONT]+[FONT=&quot]1 (918) 480-1491 within 2 working days.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

Thank You[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Windows Defender Team[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Helpline no - [/FONT]+[FONT=&quot]1 (918) 480-1491[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
1303, West Jefferson Boulevard, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA, USA 90094[/FONT]

 

[W2R]

I have been getting a lot of scams pop-ups similar to that one, lately (although I don't recall if I got that exact one). I don't click on them and just close my browser instead and restart. I have run Norton and Malwarebytes which find nothing, so I am speculating that the scammers have embedded their pop-up software in various websites.

By this time, in 2020, I regard this type of attempted scam to be just standard noise level. Ho hum. Now if they actually charged me, as they threaten, that would be another matter. But they never do, probably because I don't click on them.

 

[gwraigty]

I haven't seen anything like that.

 

[MissMolly]

This is being discussed on the Microsoft boards. They say 100% scam.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-defender-scam/9dc52844-e33d-4c89-901b-d383b5d529d7

 

[easysurfer]

Well, a dead giveaway about this being a scam is that Windows Defender is part of the system .

 

[OldShooter]

I have gotten that same email two or three times a week recently. The "product" that is supposedly being renewed varies but the structure is always the same. I mouse-hovered over one of the "links" and it was trying to download a zip file. A virus or malware of some kind I assume.

I read something interesting about these scams that are so easy to spot. I think it was from the Freakonomics guys. Their take was that if the initial scam email was really good and its problems undetectable, the scammers would be buried in responses and many of them would be from people that were too smart to actually bite. So the purpose of the email crudeness is to select for stupidity.

 

[Midpack]

This is being discussed on the Microsoft boards. They say 100% scam.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-defender-scam/9dc52844-e33d-4c89-901b-d383b5d529d7

Yes, it’s a scam.

Used to be the sending email address was a dead giveaway, totally unrelated to the supposed service. Now they’ve gotten smart enough to make their email addresses more believable.

It’s always good to assume every unexpected email is a scam, even if it’s a service you use, and check from there. Someone else almost always already seen it. There are many who pretend to be Amazon, Microsoft, etc. these days. Now they use (semi) correct logos and graphics and they sound way more convincing than they used to.

 

[RobbieB]

Of course it's a scam everyone knows defender is free.

 

[Onward]

I just sent them $299. It's a small price to pay for security. And they were such nice men.

 

[easysurfer]

Another giveaway in the scam letter is the request to get back to them in 2 days.

Kind of like those buy now, last one on stock scare tactics.

Not worth the time replying to scammers. But I think one way to annoy them would be to collect phone numbers of scammers and provide one scammer a number of another. Let them try to scam each other .

I've seen youtube videos of prankers doing that. One guy had two phones and had the scammers arguing with each other. Pretty funny ... Who's scamming who?

 

[scrabbler1]

I have been getting a lot of scams pop-ups similar to that one, lately (although I don't recall if I got that exact one). I don't click on them and just close my browser instead and restart. I have run Norton and Malwarebytes which find nothing, so I am speculating that the scammers have embedded their pop-up software in various websites.

…..Including this one, as I mentioned at the start of the year in another thread. I still get those popups once in a while; haven't seen it in about a month.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

Sometimes when I get sufficiently annoyed with a scammer, and they provide a phone number, I'll have a little fun with it -

I'll reply to a couple of internet ads for stuff like health insurance quotes and I'll provide a fake name and the scammer phone number.

The good thing about retirement is that I have some time on my hands.

 

[zinger1457]

Anyone who has lived in the LA area would have a good laugh at the address used in the email, not exactly a business or technical area, might have to fight off the drug dealers from the street corner.

 

[jim584672]

I'll have them remote into my Linux box, should be entertaining.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I just sent them $299. It's a small price to pay for security. And they were such nice men.

All in gift cards I’m sure.

 

[target2019]

If your provider isn't blocking these scams 100%, you have the wrong email provider.

 

[Midpack]

If your provider isn't blocking these scams 100%, you have the wrong email provider.

I have three email addresses, this scam came in on Comcast...

 

[jollystomper]

Of course it's a scam everyone knows defender is free.

You would be surprised. There are enough non-tech savvy people out there who might fall for this that makes the scams "worthwhile to try". I have had to teach my DW and one DS about things like this.

 

[target2019]

If your provider isn't blocking these scams 100%, you have the wrong email provider.

I have three email addresses, this scam came in on Comcast...

Yes, they're weak on security. They leaked login/password in the past.

On 5/8 I got an identity protection alert, actually two of them, that my comcast login was found on dark web...

I usually don't use the comcast web interface, just a client on my PC. Just now I noticed they caught a scam and it was in the web junk folder. Yeah for them!

I was logged in to change my password. Found that they only allow 14 characters in the password instead of the 16 recommended by 1Password.

My credentials were stolen long time ago, courtesy of USG. The result of that is that I have ID protection and get an alert every month or so. I don't feel invulnerable though. I notice the crafting of mal-email scams is clever. The only chance you have when looking at these is to examine the sender and any embedded links.

Receiving these emails occasionally is probably a good thing, as long as you detect them 100%. Both previous employers used to send out similar emails to test employees' knowledge of the threat.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Seems then figured no one would verify their address:

[FONT=&quot]Windows Defender Team[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Helpline no - [/FONT]+[FONT=&quot]1 (918) 480-1491[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
1303, West Jefferson Boulevard, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA, USA 90094[/FONT]

I did. Suite 200 must be upstairs:

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