NORTON SECURITY SCAM

Devonian_Rodders

I have NORTON with backup, but now found my details got out somehow.  The tale goes  
Was contacted via phone someone purporting to be from Norton advising my renewal was due soon (100 or so days) and could offer a package for 2 years which was acceptable. Payment was to be made by logging into usual Norton account which seemed above board !  After logging in, there was a download, and to all intents and purposes it was legit. Soon after, there was a problem with backup, so on contacting Norton, I became aware the subscription had not been added, and I was advised it was possibly a scam.  My question to NORTON was, How could my PC be hacked when security was in place ? They are not forthcoming with a reply !!   I have never been scammed before, and hopefully never again.  I do not keep passwords or other sensitive detail on PC, so how could someone know Tel No, fact I had Norton and renewal was on the horizon. ??   The icing on the cake was a week later I had an e mail (retained it) from the scammer with the following address:-info@nortonpayment.com which suggests I reply and a payment (same as what originally scammed) would be required.
Have raised a dispute with credit card issuer, and await their response.
Reading through the mails (on previous discussion)  as to whether Norton is necessary with Win 10, My system purchased new, was set up by the retailer and had Norton xferred from my previous PC which was not win 10
Be interested in others observations and/or advice.
Apologies for length.

IvanOpinion

May be nothing to do with Norton - it was a phone call.  If you make enough calls saying 'Your <random protection suite> is about to expire in <long period of time>' then you will get quite a few bites.

Personally I don't use Norton, just rely on inbuilt Windows products

theonlywayisup

You may have security in place but the most insecure item on a computer is the user.  

davidmcn

Devonian_Rodders said:

how could someone know Tel No, fact I had Norton and renewal was on the horizon. ??

In all probability, nobody did. They autodial random numbers, claiming to be from Barclaycard / Sky / Microsoft etc, and hit lucky often enough for it to be worthwhile.

Keep_pedalling

Your PC was not hacked, you were!

custardy

What company contacts customers with 100 days left on their service? Think about it
It was a random call with Norton being a big player,especially those less tech savy likely to fall for a phone scam

ssparks2003

This is wholly your error and nothing to do with Norton. You were taken in by a person cold calling you. 

Spank

Norton itself will bother you about a month before your licence expires (& not just once).
Don't buy an extension licence from them, it's cheaper to buy a new copy (£16 on Amazon £20 Norton)
As has been pointed out Windows has a built-in (free) decent AV
Also, get a free version of Malwarebytes

mikb

IvanOpinion said:

If you make enough calls saying 'Your <random protection suite> is about to expire in <long period of time>' then you will get quite a few bites.

And if that doesn't work, you can always call back to "talk about the warranty on your washing machine which is due to expire soon", or "The service contract on your Sky+ box", or Dyson vacuum cleaner. You'll get someone eventually.

Unless you're one of these non-conformists (me) that doesn't own a Dyson, Sky box, use Windows (or Norton) and doesn't take out extended warranties in the first place. Then they have to work really hard.