The McScam: The Infamous McAfee Renewal Email
You’ve heard of Chicken McNuggets®, Egg McMuffin®, McCafe®, McChicken®, etc., right? Well, folks, we are here to tell you about a different Mc and it’s not from McDonald’s®. It comes to you compliments of nefarious crooks and scammers all ’round the world. We call it The McScam.
The McScam is a scam email sent from a variety of email addresses such InternetSecurity <admin-stration@greybrokers.net>. But an address that it is not sent from is any email address ending in the domain @McAfee.com. That should be enough to startle your eyeballs and get those fingers moving quickly to click the Delete button without further reading.
However, a great number of people (hopefully, none of you in our fine Cloudeight family) have fallen for this scam. Enough people, in fact, to make it lucrative for the miscreants who send it. And they’re making so much money from this scam that variations of it have become ubiquitous in inboxes far and wide. Funny thing, emails like this seem to get passed even the best spam filters, while legitimate emails like our newsletters are often blocked (Yeah, you Yahoo and, yeah you ISPs using Yahoo servers). Oh well, that is a topic unto itself.
Anyway, dear friends, just keep an eye out for an email with a subject line similar to “Your Mcafee subscription_isExpired0fWB”. Even the subject should send your fingers into DELETE mode… especially if you don’t even use McAfee products.
The McScam spam email
Things you should look for
Besides the obvious (the “Sent from” address and the salutation), we’ve highlighted things you should look for like “Hi”. If this was a legitimate email and your subscription to McAfee was about to expire, don’t you think it would say Hi Willie Milliken, or Dear Maggie Toussand – instead of just “Hi”?
“McAfee Total Security (10 Devices)”
Do you have 10 devices? Well, you might have 2 or 3 or 4, but 10? That should be another hint that this email is spam and a scam.
Would McAfee actually write something like this?
As much as we don’t care for McAfee products, we find it hard to believe that McAfee would ever write this:
“we find roughly 400,000 new viruses everyday. Activate now and keep this PC protected from these and other threats. Then you can safely enjoy your online experiences.”
66% Discount?
66% discount off of what price. These McScam emails often try to charge users $300 – $400 per renewal. But, please don’t click anything in this scam email or the image embedded in it to find out. Just don’t do it, OK?
Activate or face the consequences buddy!
The call to action, the crux of most advertisements is, in this McScam email, in the form of clickable buttons… “activate” or “accept risk”. Of course, someone who believes this email is from McAfee would never click “accept risk”, right? But beware, both buttons lead to bad places, so don’t click!
Now you know all about the McScam spam email
If you see the McScam spam email in your inbox you know what to do, right. RIGHT! Delete it… Delete it…Delete it! Don’t click on anything in it, even if you are curious … beware and be safe!
Mine have come from info@protect.mcafee.com
I’ve been getting a fake email every day for a couple weeks. Sometimes 2 or 3 a day! ALWAYS delete!!! Getting really sick of it. Knew they were fake as I don’t use any mcafee products because of Cloudeight. Thanks guys!!!
I have been getting these emails too. I send them to Comcast Abuse for them to look into it but I still keep getting them, doesn’t seem to help much. I don’t click on anything. I have never used McAfee and their emails don’t look legit. I always look at the return address and if it doesn’t look legit I delete it, and there are a lot out there. Thanks for the info and heads up on this matter. A shame they don’t have better things to do but scam people. Wish there was a way to block them but I am sure they would find a way around that too.
Barbara, they have NO shame, or else they wouldn’t be stealing people’s money. I get these, too, even though I am not subscribed to McAfee in any way, shape or form. I also get scams posing from banks, saying that unless I update my information immediately, my account will be locked and unavailable to use, even though they are banks I have no dealings with. The scammers are out there in full force, and as the economy gets worse, the more scammers we will see. Please be careful out there, and if you don’t recognize the sender of the email, don’t open it, especially if an attachment is included! They think us old folks are too stupid to know any better, but we have to show them that we know what they are all about, and will not fall into their trap.
Right on my Friend! I never click on anything when I get these emails!, and lately I have been getting a lot of them! I just chuckle and say “Yeah Right!” as I am hitting the delete button!!
I have notified you yesterday evening about a SCAM by Restoro. The guy asked me about my anti-virus & I told him I have Emsisoft! He strongly suggested I should have McAfee or Norton! I have NO intention of getting either one of those & will continue w/Emsisoft! I believe that Restoro is a scam, as I explained in my comments to you. I will be in the process shortly of explaining to PayPal why I will refuse to pay for Restore. After they tried to zap me for $249.00 &/OR $299.00, I told them I’ throw away this computer & buy a new one before I’d give them a penny. But I had already purchased a 1-yr. subscription for $47.70 so that’s what I’m explaining to PayPal that I will NOT pay for. PayPal is very helpful, as you no doubt know.
Thanks for your faithful help & your reply to my dilemma.
I hope I get my mail from you in my Comcast(Xfinity) mailbox…other wise it is jcb3637@outlook.com
Joann Bolen
Joann Bolen
We answered your email this morning. We never ever recommended Restoro. We are sorry this happened to you. We have warned our readers dozens of times about these kinds of scams. Here is the answer we sent to you.
Hi JoAnn,
We never in million years would recommend Restoro. It’s a scam. In fact, if we find it on any computers we are working on we always remove it. It’s worthless and can cause serious damage to your Windows computer. Restoro falls under our general One-click-fix scam warning. It uses a ruse as old as Windows to try to make you believe your computer has hundreds or thousands of errors, that can be fixed only if your buy Restoro – it’s a scam.
Call PayPal and tell them you have been scammed and tell them you want your money back right away. PayPal will do this if you tell them you’re the victim of a scam.
And again, we never ever recommended Restoro and we never would.
Best wishes,
TC
Cloudeight
I get several every day. I have tried blocking them in OE Classic & in Gmail & nothing works. Maybe I am doing something wrong when creating the filter. I am sorely tired of getting emails that I didn’t ask for.
We just got a similar email that said it was from “The Geek Squad” but it did not come from Best Buy. They said they would be renewing our contract for $499.00 US. They actually had our correct name and address.
We did have a contract with The Geek Squad a number of years ago but would never do that again.
If you get these emails and they say anything about PayPal don’t click on anything and just forward it to PayPal at,
spoof@paypal.com, and they will take care of it. I do it when I get them and they usually will email me back when
they check it and tell me if it was a scam email, and it alway is a scam. Good luck!