McAfee is a popular security software company so it is somewhat ironic that scammers are using their name in phishing emails to scam people.  Recently, law enforcement officials in Nevada warned about a scam that starts with an email that purports to be from McAfee informing you that you are being charged $300 for McAfee Total Protection anti-virus software unless you cancel the order by calling a phone number provided in the email.  If you call the number provided you will be greeted by a scammer posing as a McAfee employee who will ask for personal information including a bank account number supposedly to verify the account.  Anyone providing this information is well on their way to becoming a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

There are  number of telltale signs that this is a phishing scam.  Emails from the real McAfee company are not sent through Gmail although the scams are sent using a Gmail account.  In addition, the phishing emails being sent by the scammers are sent as mass mailings so when you receive one of these phishing emails, not only does your name not appear on the email, but you are able to see that the same email was sent to numerous other people.

As always, you should never click on a link or provide information in response to any email you receive unless you have absolutely confirmed that the email is legitimate.  Nor should you trust the phone number in such emails. B.S. – Be skeptical.  If you have concerns that the email may be legitimate, merely call the company, in this case McAfee at a telephone number you know is accurate which in this case is. 866-622-3911 which, of course is not the number that appears in the phishing email.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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