Was I scammed yesterday?

Kaera

Two days ago i checked into my account to my new credit card. I was not allowed to delete the old card..Then I tried to get a support person and was called. He told me that the best support person was busy but would call me which he did. His name was Edward.He was very knowedgable and took me thru all the different parts of the program. After 4 hours, he told me that my program had a number of Russian people on my app and that all of the other areas such as wifi, other devices etc were also taken over. He said to clean out all this would be $799 with additional cost for a firewall. I thought this was pretty high so I would think about it....He was very very good, but I was a bit nervous how he was trying to sell the whole package .This morning I ran my scan which claimed nothing. I have tried to get a support person or a chat person that I could talk to, but no luck. I would like some feedback from the community and at least how to get someone I can talk to.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @Kaera and welcome to the Community!

By the looks of it, I would say yes. First of all, we don't have a home product that expensive. $799 is a lot of money for just a home user solution and my best guess is that they included the "remote assistance" in this price. Which takes us to the next thing: Bitdefender’s representatives will never call or email you out of the blue and technical assistance / support is free of charge with our products. Moreover, if a remote session is indeed necessary, our Support Teams will send you an email in advance and ask for your availability to schedule the call. Our engineers will NEVER call unnanounced immediately after the first contact and there is no "best support person", since all Bitdefender engineers are equally trained, they have the same knowledge and set of skills required to provide technical assistance to our users, in accordance with the highest standards.

The following scenario may also happen: when searching online for Bitdefender help desk, you can land on a site that seems legitimate. It may display a big Bitdefender logo and the phone number covers half of the front page. If you dial the number (usually Toll-Free), the person who answers will quickly try to gain remote access to your computer.

This is usually the first sign that you need to walk away. ⚠️ During the call, they will also be very persistant and will give you the impression of an immediate threat that needs to be dealt with. First they scare you, then they provide the solution. This is another red flag. 🚩

More information on fake support tactics and ways to defend against them can be found in the article below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/28454/

If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer or if you have already paid for fake support, contact your bank or financial institution immediately and open a chargeback.‼️

You may wish to file a complaint with the appropriate authorities or your regional fraud reporting center:

• in the US: file a report with the FBI | FTC
• in Canada: contact Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
• in the UK: file a report with the National Fraud & Cyber Crime Reporting Centre | Report a cold call
• in Australia: contact the ACCC
• other countries: report international scams at ECONSUMER.GOV

Regards