And I need a drink.

My husband and I just went through the worst experience you can imagine. So, I’m going to pour myself a drink, calm down and start at the beginning.

Langston and I have a long-standing customer relationship with Comcast aka Xfinity. When they contracted with our city, they also gave the customers free internet security service through Norton. We were ecstatic to get something for free and it lasted many years without any major problems.

In 2021 we, the customers, were told that Xfinity would no longer offer a free service and that we could continue with Norton’s at a price. I was reluctant.  My husband wasn’t. He dived right in and got the program upgraded so that we got protection on all our devices. I washed my hands of everything to do with Norton and let him handle all of it.

So, a couple of days ago I get an email from Norton 360 in my inbox and here is the copy …

Invoice yyty75973@gmail.com

Payment Receipt

Customer Support – +1 (888) 401-3922 

Order ID – XMDIT-825875  

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Account Type:- Personal Home Subscription

Product         :- NORTON Premium

Quantity        :- 1

Tenure          :- 3 Years

Payment Mode:- Auto Debit

Renewal Amount – $ 249.99

This charge appears on your statement as payment to “NORTON LIFELOCK INC”

Terms & Conditions

The subscription period will automatically renew unless you turn it of no later than 24 hrs before the end of current period. To cancel auto-renewal or to manage your subscription.

if you didn’t authorize this Charge, You have 74 Hrs From The Date Of Transaction to open a dispuit against this charge or claim for the refund.
We Recommend you to call our customer care service immediately, Please Keep The Order Number Or Transaction ID handy for assistance.

Thank You

Team NORTON

Customer Support:- +1 (888) 401-3922

The email came complete with a Norton’s display logo. I sat on this email for several days and then showed it to Langston yesterday, Friday February 5, 2021. That’s when all hell broke loose.

He called them to instruct them not to renew as we knew that we had already paid for the program. As he got further into the conversation, he was beginning to feel like these people were not the real deal. They got him to bring up our bank account to make the adjustment, and  gave him an internet address to bring up and somehow a black screen pops up. Instructions were given verbally to type information onto this black screen. This included that $249.99. That amount turned into 24,999 not because Langston typed it in wrong (he didn’t) but because they overlapped digits being typed simultaneously from their end. It ended up in our checking account as $24,999.00 and he (the scammer) had a hissy fit over it … crying that it was a mistake and we will have to go to our bank to transfer it out.

I said, “Just relax. We will take care of it.” He wasn’t having any of it. He wanted us to use specific words to the bank teller because if we say the wrong thing, he could get in trouble. We both got suspicious after this emotional display. He was behaving so unprofessionally.

Finally, Langston hung up the call. The scammer got us on our landline. “Did you go to the bank yet?” I told him “No!” In the meantime, Langston discovered that the same amount of money had been moved out of our savings. We would have released our own funds to this creep. Langston immediately transferred the money back into our savings account and we called our bank to try and get in to see someone. During Covid that is kind of a tough thing to do and it turned out not to be such a bad thing because it gave us time to think and plan our next move.

We kept on watching our bank accounts to make sure nothing had been breached and it looked like they only got limited access after I discussed the situation with our banker by phone. We are still shaky from all of this but learned a valuable lesson. We thought we had all the scammers figured out and got scammed for the first time in our lives.

I’m telling you this so that you stay on the lookout and be alert at all times. These people spend nothing but time trying to relieve you of your hard-earned money. Because we were involved with Norton’s 360, the email looked legit and we got taken. This warning covers a whole range of products that you and I use. I’ve had more scam emails clutter my box and most of the time, report or ignore them. This time we got caught.

Another point to keep in mind is to take a close look at the email address. If it looks odd, then chances are it is a scam. I forgot to check that out.

I want to make sure you understand the importance of staying on the alert. It’s getting worse and worse out here and it never seems to stop. They keep coming up with newer and more elaborate ways to scam and the emails are coming more and more frequently. It’s a numbers game and you don’t want them to win.

Now I’ll sit back, prop up my feet and continue sipping my wine while I listen to your story.