Scam Type
Tech Support Scam
Business Name Used
McAfee / imposter
Date Reported
May 26, 2024
Postal Code
98374
Total Dollars Lost
$ 1980
Scam Description
I received an email informing me that I owed $219.99 for a virus subscription that I did not even purchase. When I learned about it, I immediately asked my bank to put a stop payment on it to which they did and provided me a stop order payment number. The bank advised me to also contact the merchant to get a refund. On 5/24, I called McAfee at 1888-227-8349 and the representative I was working with walked me through a process to cancel the subscription and so I can get an immediate refund. It did not go through and I was transferred to another guy and he said, we will do the refund to a process called “gateway”. I was completing the form and when we arrived at the question about how much, I proceeded to type 2, 1, then the system took over and typed in an amount of $2199.99 instead of $219.99 (the original payment charged to my bank account that I was trying to get a refund for). The rep then instructed me to reverse the payment so they can get the balance that was accidentally transferred to my account. The first thing he asked was to do transfer $500.00 through Zelle to a person by the name Andrea Grier, which I did. The rep then informed me that it was declined from their end. Then, he asked if I can make the transfer from my PayPal account, which I tried to do. When, I tried to make the transfer, Paypal started asking alot of questions like my driver’s license, passport information, etc. I started to feel uncomfortable about all of this and told him so. He then informed me that this transfer was oversees and that’s why they are asking all these questions. I told him, I was no longer going to proceed. So, he said, if I can purchase an appt card from the store and returned the partial balance that way. At this point, I was supposed to return $1980 back to them since I was only charged $219.99. There was no record of $1980 on my account. Because of all the inconveniences this transaction created, they were willing to forgo $400.00, making what I owe $1,580. There’s no record of $1580 on my account either. I asked the rep how to return the extra money, and he kept asking me to purchase apple cards, I told him that this was outside of business transaction and I’ve never heard of a refund handled this way. There was never a record of the extra money that was accidentally transferred to my account anywhere on my checking account. I kept telling him that this was a fraud. The following day, my savings account which I had a balance of $1600+ all of sudden became, $600. I called the bank and they informed me that $1000 was transferred over to my checking to which I told the bank I did not make that transfer. I contacted the merchant to say that my bank was compromised and he asked me again to purchase apple cards to pay the refund which was never on my account to begin with, to which I told him, it appeared that you took my money from my account. When I told him that I was reporting and filing a complaint to Better Business, and was filing a fraud claim through my bank, he stopped calling. I couldn’t reach him again.
