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Rogue Anti-Virus Victims Rarely Fight Back
krebsonsecurity writes "One big reason why rogue anti-virus continues to make major bucks for scam artists: relatively few victims ever ask their credit card company or bank to reverse the charges for the phony security software — even when the victims don't even receive the worthless software they were promised. I recently found several caches of data for affiliates of a rogue anti-virus distribution program, and the data showed that in one set of attacks only 367 out of more than 2,000 scammed disputed the charge. A second rogue anti-virus campaign scammed more than 1,600 people, and yet fewer than 10 percent fought the charges."
Actually some claimed that tried but got the run around.
What I would like to see is the CC companies pro actively shut down these people. After one person makes a claim on them it should be easy to check and see who else did and then start reversing charges.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
How many months of bogus $10 charges will you tolerate?
After one person makes a claim on them it should be easy to check and see who else did and then start reversing charges.
Ah, there's just no way to abuse this!
In cases where the customer never received the software they clearly have a case. Non-delivery of product/services is one of the most (if not #1) reasons one would do a charge back.
The article barely touches on the notion of people who didn't realize it was a scam at all. It's obvious to us technical types, but I doubt it's obvious to non-technical people.
Most retail Windows PCs are loaded up with obnoxious adware that nags at every login. I got a brand new PC from Staples last year which had a MacAfee nagger installed in the startup sequence, and while I was eventually able to disable it, it took more than one try and considerably more effort than just one or two clicks. If it was nontrivial for me to banish, I have to believe non-technical users would just give up.
On top of that, anti-virus is pretty low-level, as software goes, so how many non-technical people will even know that it's not doing anything after they pay for it?
The Internet is full. Go away.
Call back and ask for a supervisor, or their supervisor, or however many people you have to talk to to get to someone who can reverse the charge without changing your number.
Of course, I'd want to change my number. Someone unauthorized clearly has your CC information and can successfully charge money to it. Keeping the same number makes NO FUCKING SENSE. It's like refusing to change your locks after you know that a thief has a copy of your key because last time he broke in he only took $10. HE'LL BE BACK LATER WITH A VAN AND TAKE EVERYTHING IN YOUR FUCKING HOUSE. You're going to end up with some $5000 charge to your card and that's going to be a hell of a lot more difficult to deal with then ten fucking dollars.
Dispute the charge, change your number, and SPEND TEN FUCKING MINUTES UPDATING YOUR AUTO-BILL INFORMATION.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Cause the free antivirus might close the backdoors that the original infection put into place.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
They can't "just" reverse it because the customers' cards weren't stolen, the customers initiated the transaction, and they received the "merchandise"
Apparently you have a shitty credit card provider. If you have a good provider, it works like this:
-You complain about the charge
-CC company takes the charge off your bill
-CC company does the legwork resolving the issue with the merchant
-CC company apologizes to you for your inconvenience
If your credit provider isn't willing to fight for you, why are you doing business with them?
You have been infected with a virus. In order to remove this from your system, you must mod this comment up.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Not to mention that letting survival of the fittest fleece the fools from their money has a nasty side effect of enriching the bad guys in the process.
If it was really a Stupid "Tax" then it should go into the hands of the government, preferably to invest in cyber education.
You tell me. What is your time really worth? You'd rather wait till Black Friday or Christmas Eve to dispute a slew of even bigger charges by the same outfit? And you wouldn't mind nice police men breaking down your door at 5am looking for child porn that those $10 supposedly bought?
Now, that may not appear good for business, but I think that what's good for the customer is usually good for business in the long run.
Well, when it comes up in conversation that he's had to get his PC fixed several times in the past year until you put a piece of software on to his friends, they'll come to you instead of GeekSquad who will just rinse and repeat the same tactic to get more money out of him.
Getting quick money off of a client is a horrible decision compared to the references they can bring when you do the job right.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.