Author Topic: False Positive Virus Detection and Terrible 24/7 Telephone Technical Support  (Read 4721 times)

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mikewmac

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Saturday when I tried to start up Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (FS 2004), the dynamic File Shield scan in my Avast Virus Software determined the bus.mdl files for the 5 different elevation levels of my Mobile Control Tower addon (unchanged since 2004) to be suspicious for what it calls the Win32:Evo-gen [Susp] virus and placed them in its Virus Chest. However, when I scanned them with Avast in either the Virus Chest or in my Mobile Control Tower backup folder, all five files are found to be virus free. I have also scanned my Mobile Control Tower backup folders with Microsoft's Security Essentials and that also found no virus infections. I have informed Avast of what appears to be a False Positive by their File Shield scan and await their response.

Meanwhile I made the mistake of taking the lazy man's option of using the Avast 24/7 Technical Support line to quickly get help in working around this problem in order to get my FS 2004 setup back running. Unfortunately whatever offshore group that Avast has contracted out their Technical Support to was only interested in pressuring me to pay for an unnecessary and quite expensive PC cleanup service instead of helping me either exclude these bus.mdl files from the Avast File Shield scans or as a last resort turn the Avast File Shield scan off all together.

Needless to say, the discussion got heated as I pushed for a workaround to these false positives and the so called technical support person tried to convince me that a bunch of harmless files such as temp files were the cause of my problem and that I should pay them for their PC cleanup service. She finally gave up and hung up on me after telling me that there was no way to exclude these bus.mdl files from the File Shield scans or to turn the File Shield scans off. The moral to this story is to not be lazy like I was and bother to use the free Avast Technical Support line because it appears to connect to a scam for an essentially useless PC Cleanup service.

The good news is that subsequently I hunted around in my Avast Virus Software on my own and first found how to turn the Avast File Shield scans off so I could get the 5 Mobile Control Tower bus.mdl files re-installed and get my FS 2004 setup back running. Later I found how to exclude the 5 Mobile Control Tower model folders from the File Shield scans so I could have it back on when running FS 2004.

I'd like to notify Avast of my bad experience using their 24/7 technical support line, but I can't find a telephone number to use to talk to an actual Avast representative.

mikewmac

  • Guest
To further verify that the Avast File Shield scan was giving a False Positive for these 5 bus.mdl files I just tested one of them with Virus Total and none of the 46 virus checkers used detected any problem. 

Offline CraigB

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You don't mention who exactly you spoke to or the contact number used so that this issue can be reported to avast directly ? You'll also notice that at the top of the avast UI is a support tab, clicking on that then scrolling to the bottom of the page gives an option to report files the avast virus lab.

For future reference reporting false positives via this function is the quickest way to have solved your problem, usually hours or a day max has been my experience on reports.

mikewmac

  • Guest
You don't mention who exactly you spoke to or the contact number used so that this issue can be reported to avast directly ? You'll also notice that at the top of the avast UI is a support tab, clicking on that then scrolling to the bottom of the page gives an option to report files the avast virus lab.

For future reference reporting false positives via this function is the quickest way to have solved your problem, usually hours or a day max has been my experience on reports.

I spoke to a woman named Andrea ?? at the Free Avast Phone Support Number, US Toll-free: 866-951-7679, located at the top of the page activated by a left mouse click on the Support Tab in the Avast UI. I can't supply her last name because I couldn't understand her pronunciation of it. 

I actually submitted the 5 supposedly suspicious bus.mdl files to the Avast virus lab directly from my Avast Virus Chest using the option for that purpose located in the pull down menu.

ram1220

  • Guest
 I'm not sure why but what used to be honest companies are now linking callers to unscrupulous "fix it" companies that scam people out of their hard earned money. This is not the first time I've heard of Avast doing this. I have a friend who just fell victim to one of these "fix it" companies through Yahoo. His mail wasn't working and he called Yahoo for help. They referred him to one of these companies. They logged into his system and started deleting valid good programs. He got suspicious and turned his computer off but not before they took $300 out of his bank account for their services. To make a long story short he got his money back through his bank and I fixed his computer.
  But there are more and more honest companies linking their tech support to these scam artists. I have read in this forum about a year or two ago about Avast users being scammed. Avast needs to look into this if they are not "in bed" with these companies.

Offline CraigB

  • Avast Überevangelist
  • Serious Graphoman
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You don't mention who exactly you spoke to or the contact number used so that this issue can be reported to avast directly ? You'll also notice that at the top of the avast UI is a support tab, clicking on that then scrolling to the bottom of the page gives an option to report files the avast virus lab.

For future reference reporting false positives via this function is the quickest way to have solved your problem, usually hours or a day max has been my experience on reports.

I spoke to a woman named Andrea ?? at the Free Avast Phone Support Number, US Toll-free: 866-951-7679, located at the top of the page activated by a left mouse click on the Support Tab in the Avast UI. I can't supply her last name because I couldn't understand her pronunciation of it. 

I actually submitted the 5 supposedly suspicious bus.mdl files to the Avast virus lab directly from my Avast Virus Chest using the option for that purpose located in the pull down menu.
I have reported your issue to the moderator team so hopefully they can look into it soon.

mikewmac

  • Guest
You don't mention who exactly you spoke to or the contact number used so that this issue can be reported to avast directly ? You'll also notice that at the top of the avast UI is a support tab, clicking on that then scrolling to the bottom of the page gives an option to report files the avast virus lab.

For future reference reporting false positives via this function is the quickest way to have solved your problem, usually hours or a day max has been my experience on reports.

I spoke to a woman named Andrea ?? at the Free Avast Phone Support Number, US Toll-free: 866-951-7679, located at the top of the page activated by a left mouse click on the Support Tab in the Avast UI. I can't supply her last name because I couldn't understand her pronunciation of it. 

I actually submitted the 5 supposedly suspicious bus.mdl files to the Avast virus lab directly from my Avast Virus Chest using the option for that purpose located in the pull down menu.
I have reported your issue to the moderator team so hopefully they can look into it soon.

Thanks,

I looked all over for a phone number to call Avast directly and talk to an actual Avast company representative to report my experience, but couldn't find one.

kodl

  • Guest
It looks like all reviews on the net are right about Avast going down in testing (not only tech support). A few classes in MARKETING can help Avast. That's what they need. I know what will follow. Some people cannot handle criticism.........
« Last Edit: August 07, 2013, 04:23:21 PM by kodl »

Adam Riley

  • Guest
You don't mention who exactly you spoke to or the contact number used so that this issue can be reported to avast directly ? You'll also notice that at the top of the avast UI is a support tab, clicking on that then scrolling to the bottom of the page gives an option to report files the avast virus lab.

For future reference reporting false positives via this function is the quickest way to have solved your problem, usually hours or a day max has been my experience on reports.

I spoke to a woman named Andrea ?? at the Free Avast Phone Support Number, US Toll-free: 866-951-7679, located at the top of the page activated by a left mouse click on the Support Tab in the Avast UI. I can't supply her last name because I couldn't understand her pronunciation of it. 

I actually submitted the 5 supposedly suspicious bus.mdl files to the Avast virus lab directly from my Avast Virus Chest using the option for that purpose located in the pull down menu.

Good afternoon,

Could you please forward me the phone number you used to call our support and/or your email address?  I can then find out exactly what went wrong here.
Please forward the details to: riley at avast dot com

Also,  you mention you could not find a phone number to reach Avast;  if you visit Avast dot com you should see a phone number appear right there on the home page; you can also select contacts and see a range of ways to contact us directly should you require it.

Many thanks,
Adam Riley