Advice needed re virus protection, where do I stand?

mrswilliams29

Forgive me if I haven't quite understood this but I need some advice re virus protection.

I have had McAfee total protection since buying our laptop (was free for first year), it auto renewed in March for £64.99. Last week my bank rang me to say they had identified five viruses on my computer when I last logged on to online banking. They subsequaently shut down my online banking until I was able to rectify the problem. We have had the viruses removed now and have had AVG free installed instead.

Now, where do I stand with McAfee, I tried complaining to them this morning and their response was;

"Using a security software, does not guaranteethat all viruses or any form of security threat that will be detected andtreated. Security software providers like McAfee, receive different kinds ofupdates about new viruses and security threats everyday and let me assure youthat McAfee is working on solutions to detect these in the future."

When I asked about a refund, I was told: "McAfee service renewals come with a 60-day money back guarantee from thedate of renewal. In researching your account, I have found that you are pastthis 60-day refund period. McAfee do not offer refunds after the refund period."

Is there anything else I can do? In my mind, five viruses is unacceptable and they have failed to provide me with the service I paid for. They have given me an address for complaints and a supervisor will be calling me in the next 48 hours to explain there position further apparently. Just wanting to be armed with some info beforehand really!

Any advice is greatfully received.

Thanks

bod1467

No AV product guarantees to be 100% effective, and their T&Cs of use will state as such. Nothing you can really do, sorry ...

... except to not use McAfee. There are several AV products available free (AVG, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials) that work as good, if not better, than McAfee.

If you DO use a paid-for product, never accept the renewal offer - it is almost ALWAYS significantly more expensive than other methods (e.g. buying it again and simply using the license key in your current installation).

Kudos to your bank for spotting such infections and alerting you.

Eydon

bod1467 wrote: »

Kudos to your bank for spotting such infections and alerting you.

If it was the bank that spotted it. When I read...

mrswilliams29 wrote: »

Last week my bank rang me to say they had identified five viruses on my computer when I last logged on to online banking

...alarm bells started ringing.

As long as you were happy it was definitely your bank.

With regards to your AV software, as said above none will be 100% effective. Had you kept your virus definitions up-to-date and was your AV software running on a regular basis.

You said you had the viruses removed. How? Did you remove them using AVG Free or by some other means - just curious if AVG spotted them when McAfee didn't.

bod1467

I wondered the same, but took the OP at face value when they said they were locked out of online banking.

shaun_from_Africa

I wondered the same, but took the OP at face value when they said they were locked out of online banking.

Locking someone out of their online banking account isn't too difficult.
All you need to do is to gain access to their computer and attempt to log on a few times using the incorrect passwords.

What you should do mrswilliams is to telephone your bank as soon as you can. Ask to speak to their fraud or IT department and get them to confirm exactly what happened.
It's unlikely that you do have a problem, but one call will be all you need to confirm this.

maninthestreet

Which bank is this? In order to detect viruses on your machine would have required some scanning utility to be installed and executed.

Nilrem

maninthestreet wrote: »

Which bank is this? In order to detect viruses on your machine would have required some scanning utility to be installed and executed.

Aye it sounds very suspicious.

And it takes a reasonable amount of time to scan a PC for viruses, even when the AV is installed and run locally.

It sounds very much like an adaptation of the "Hi we work for Microsoft and have detected you've got a virus" scam.

wealdroam

OP, was it the same telephone caller that kindly removed the virus's for you?

mrswilliams29

Thanks everyone, gutted that I prob can't get McAfee on this one as so annoyed with them!

In answer to some of the points, I was sure it was my bank (well building society) as I used to work for them so know the drill, also spoke to them today to order new passwords etc. The viruses were removed by my friends husband (who works in IT) he also set up AVG for us, not sure how or what he did. When I was notified of the viruses last week I did a McAfee scan that said 'no threat detected', but AVG on installation found all five!

I know going with renewal wasn't best but it happened at a time when I had a lot going on (personally) and sorting out things like this were bottom of my priority list, guess I've learnt a valuable lesson though!

Thanks for all your advice

DCFC79

Not heard of a bank or a BS in this case calling to notify a customer of a virus or 2 on the pc,

Slowhand

Sounds really dodgy. I also have never heard (until now) of anyone being contacted like this. I'd have all the money in that account moved elsewhere by now.