Antivirus Scam Emails: Why You Shouldn’t Pay "Norton" $499.99

If you're a client of mine, you’ve probably called me already in full DEFCON 1 mode after receiving this classic scam. It’s an email claiming you’ve been billed $499.99 for a Norton subscription you never signed up for. Deep breath—no, you didn’t buy anything. And yes, it’s 100% a scam.

Let’s dissect this hot mess of an email:

  • From: Some sketchy Gmail address like [email protected]
  • Subject: “Thank You For Your Purchase”
  • Claim: You just paid $499.99 for “Norton Total Protection” for 3 years
  • Hook: “If you didn’t make this purchase, call us right away!”

And here’s where people get suckered: they call the number. “Support” will then walk you through canceling your payment—which somehow requires remote access to your computer, your bank login, and probably your blood type. If you are not aware, they will "accidentally" transfer money to your account, editing the HTML Web page to make it look like it was transferred, and then have you go to your bank to withdraw cash, insert it at a BITCOIN ATM to their address. and just like that, you've been robbed.

Next thing you know, they’re off with your money, and you’re off calling me for damage control.

Damage control is usually about 4-8 hours of forensic analysis (which banks did they get to, what password lists unsecured did they copy out, what data did they access, what other accounts did the manage to login to using YOUR computer remotely), calls to your bank, police, FBI and other fun conversations that I have to bill for.

The worst two: client in Palm Springs - the guy had her on the phone for 8 hours. The next day was an 8 hour event for me in calling the multitudes of banks, investment houses, and other companies she did business with. The other was a client that had already made it to the bank and someone at the bank stopped them and alerted them to the scam.

IF YOU ARE NOT SURE, FORWARD IT TO ME!

Why This Is Garbage

  • It’s from a free Gmail account. Norton doesn’t do business through gmail.com. That’s like Amazon billing you from an AOL address.
  • The message is base64 encoded. Translation: they’re trying to sneak it past spam filters like it’s Mission Impossible.
  • No legit invoice, no account info, no Norton logo. Just a chunk of awkwardly phrased nonsense and a random transaction ID that screams "copy-paste special."
  • They beg you to call. Because once they have you on the line, the scam really kicks off.

What You Should Do

Do NOT:

  • Reply to the email
  • Click anything inside it
  • Call the number—even if it promises “24/7 protection” (spoiler: it's a guy in a basement)
  • Forward it to your grandmother unless she's with the FBI.

DO:

Already Clicked or Called?

Don’t beat yourself up. Scammers are good at looking “official.” But if you gave any personal or banking info—immediately call your bank and let them know what happened. Then call me. We’ll clean it up. Probably while I mutter something sarcastic under my breath about Norton never charging $500 for anything unless it includes a gold-plated firewall. And I will remind you that I only install ESET on Windows Computers and CleanMyMac on MacOS computers.

Want to Be Scam-Proof?

Keep this rule in mind: Real companies don’t send surprise invoices and then beg you to call a random number to “cancel.” If you’re actually subscribed to Norton or McAfee, log in to your account on their real websites. Cancel it anyways and call me to have a REAL Antivirus installed during a cleanup to be sure that you are safe from malware, bad extensions that reroute your typing in the browser windows and have me install ESET!

Don’t trust what a sketchy email says. Don’t even trust what your dog says. Trust your gut—and your IT guy. <---ME.

References (Actual Legit Ones):

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