Old (true) story about why I hate McAfee

RussJK

I thought I would share a story about one of the earliest experiences I had with a virus, that involved McAfee. I find it funny now, but at the time I was quite incensed. It was in the 1990s... McAfee sent me a "free virus scanner" recovery type CD. It was for when your computer became unbootable because of a virus. I figured it'd be handy if I ever needed it, so kept it handy. A few months later I actually got a virus that wiped the MBR which prevented me from starting the computer up, so thought it'd be a perfect time to boot up with the "free virus scanner" disc from McAfee. Actually, I was pretty anxious as nothing like this had ever happened.

After ages of scanning, McAfee helpfully confirmed that I had a virus. I felt such relief that it'd be fixed, and was ready to sing the praises of McAfee - I'd be sure to subscribe to their product now that it had proven its worth. But wait, what's it saying now? What the..? What unbelievable cheek! Can you guess what this free virus scanner was saying?

The bloody thing was telling me to buy the McAfee virus remover to get rid of the virus..! I'd taken it as a given that a virus scanner would also remove the virus, but obviously it was a cynical marketing ploy. They would have had a lifelong subscriber had it removed the virus, but instead left me with a poor opinion of them.

Luckily I figured out a way to repair the boot record myself. I used a floppy to boot up DOS (set it in read only mode so it wouldn't get the virus) so I could fix the MBR. When I booted from the HDD to test things, the virus wrecked the MBR a second time (haha), so the next time I fixed the MBR with the DOS floppy I also ran a virus scan from a Norton which also removed the virus.

So that is why I hate McAfee. The company originated the whole 'find a problem, then ask for money to fix it' scam that rogue malware emulate today! (*No, I don't literally believe it to be a scam, I'm being facetious rather than entirely literal, which is probably how I missed that it only said 'scanner' and not 'remover' in the first place)

custardy

so thats the same as online scanners?
what were you expecting from the scanner? a full AV solution?

taxi97w

More like dirty marketing tactics.
Marketing is something I particularly despise :cool:

RussJK

custardy wrote: »

what were you expecting from the scanner? a full AV solution?

Hey, the early 1990s was an era of innocence...! For software anyway. When McAfee gave away those free 'boot up' virus scanners, it was reasonable enough to assume that it would remove anything they found as well - so that's exactly what I expected the virus scanner to do.

I figured that it was to show people the value of a good scanner, so you'd want to buy regular updates in the mail (no internet). I was used to shareware, with Apogee and the like, so the idea wasn't unreasonable.

Except for the hype surrounding the Michelangelo virus, which John McAfee was behind incidentally (the hype that is), there was far less awareness of viruses back in those days.

RobTang

How is it a scam exactly, its not like McAfee infected your computer.

Dont get me wrong hostageware is a scam, but that isn't.

RussJK

RobTang wrote: »

How is it a scam exactly, its not like McAfee infected your computer.

Obviously I was being facetious, geez, I don't literally think it was a scam (!). It is however the earliest case that I'm aware of for an anti-malware product to find a virus and then ask for payment to remove it, so the resemblance to current rogue apps these days that do nearly the same thing is worth pointing out (and what reminded me of the McAfee incident in the first place). I also thought it was an amusing story, but I could be wrong from the sounds of it!

The point is that while it was exactly true to its word of being a virus scanner, it could have been more clear that it wasn't going to do the important thing of removing any viruses. Afterall it was a bootable virus scanner that you'd only use when in dire straits, so it was a cheap trick for it just to scan but not remove. I'd have been grateful to McAfee had it removed the virus, but their cynical marketing just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Lousy AV anyway - I've found loads of malware on McAfee protected computers, and afterwards steered those paying customers away from McAfee.