The phony invoice scam is a common scam popular with scammers because it is quite effective. It starts when you receive an email that purports to be from a popular company with which many of us do business that indicates that you owe them a significant payment. The scammers count on people being concerned that they are being wrongfully charged for a product they did not order. You are provided a telephone number to call if you dispute the bill. If you call the number, you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
The copied email below, which I personally received and many Scamicide readers have told me that they received, appears to come from Norton Life Lock, a company that provides a wide range of digital security services and identity theft protection services. As always, the purpose of a phishing email is to lure you into clicking on links contained within the email or providing personal information, in this case by phone if you call to dispute the phony bill . If you click on links in phishing emails, you end up downloading malware and if you provide the requested information, it ends up being used to make you a victim of identity theft. This particular phishing email provides a phone number to call if you wish to dispute the obviously phony invoice. If you call the number in the phishing email you will be asked for personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft. The phone number is not one of Norton Life Lock. The real phone number of Norton Life Lock is 800-543-3562.
There are a number of red flags that indicate that this is a scam. Your name does not appear anywhere in the invoice. Only your email address appears in the phony invoice. Also, although the email address for the phishing email that was sent to me could appear to the untrained eye to be from Norton, it was not an email address used by Norton. Norton has a webpage you can go to that indicates the legitimate email addresses from which it sends email. Here is a link to that page. https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v71088498
Here is a copy of the invoice being circulated.
| Norton LifeLock |
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Dear Customer, We have received your order.
We are much obliged to inform you that your order has been auto-renewed.
We have charged you an amount of $385.88 for Norton LifeLock.
You can call our customer service team for a refund- +18886567111.
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Notes:
1. Your account has been auto-debited and the charge will appear on your
bank account in the next 24 hours.
2. Please retain the copy of Invoice as the proof of your service for 1 year. If
you have any questions or queries about your order then see the help
document!
Steve R Hughes
Billing Team
+18886567111
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Norton LifeLock
121 Mountain View, CA 95054 US
(888) 656-7111
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If you receive an email that seems fraudulent, please check with the business owner before paying.
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TIPS
Once, I received a large invoice from a company with which I do business for goods I did not order, but rather than click on the link provided in the email, I went directly to the company’s website to question the invoice. When the website came up, the first thing I saw was a large announcement that the invoice was a scam and that many people had received these phony invoices. If you ever receive a phony invoice such as this and you think that it may possibly be true, don’t click on links or call phone numbers provided in the email. Rather, contact the real company directly at a phone number or website that you know is legitimate where you can confirm that the phishing invoice was a scam.
Never click on links or download attachments in emails or text messages unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate and don’t call companies at telephone numbers that appear in the email such as this one. Instead, if the email appears to come from a legitimate company, you can call them at a telephone number you confirm is legitimate . Don’t call the number that appears in the email. The email does contain good graphics and the Norton Life Lock logo, but these are extremely easy to copy.
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