Called The Tech Support Line - Be Careful of AVAST FRAUD!

[randperry]

Get the same old "blacklist warning popup" everyday with standard email opening although I never click on links or attachments (or unsubscribe either) with anyone I don't know.  Thinking to myself:  How can Avast be blocking this same thing/virus over and over again when I do nothing to trigger it?

So I called the AVAST customer service line - which is answered in the Philippines BTW.  The response person lapsed into an almost 90 minute hard-press sales pitch and tried to get me to pay $199 for their premium service.  But wait........because the story gets even better:

He admitted to me that this is THEIR popup to try to generate more business.  I am thinking hmmm, that certainly is NOT HONEST and especially for a virus-type company.

Then I let him teleconnect/remote to my system because he is telling me that he has to do this to take off THEIR fake pop-up off of my system.  Thought that was pretty slimy but I played along.

Then he tells me that he needs to clean out my system because it running too slow and has too much junk in it.  So he shows me two screen pages - supposedly one of my hard drive and one of my "junk file." 

First thing I notice is that this is NOT MY FONT SIZE so it could not be my system.  He says, "Here is one problem - you have McAfee running at the same time and this is in conflict with the AVAST program - which is why your system is so slow.  Hmmm #2.  Only problem with that is that I don't and never had McAfee on my system. 

Then he shows me supposedly what is "junk" on my system but I can see for sure now that this is NOT my system.  Hmmm #3.  Do we see a pattern of deception and even fraud here maybe?

Anyway, I didn't take his bait and buy anything.  And the price eventually came down from $199 to about $40 after "talking to his supervisor."   Then he wanted me to take down a number because "he is going to call me back sometime."  I guess his commission is linked to this somehow?

So BEWARE WHEN YOU CALL THEM!  THIS IS FRAUD!

[bob3160]

Get the same old "blacklist warning popup" everyday with standard email opening although I never click on links or attachments (or unsubscribe either) with anyone I don't know.  Thinking to myself:  How can Avast be blocking this same thing/virus over and over again when I do nothing to trigger it?

So I called the AVAST customer service line - which is answered in the Philippines BTW.  The response person lapsed into an almost 90 minute hard-press sales pitch and tried to get me to pay $199 for their premium service.  But wait........because the story gets even better:

He admitted to me that this is THEIR popup to try to generate more business.  I am thinking hmmm, that certainly is NOT HONEST and especially for a virus-type company.

Then I let him teleconnect/remote to my system because he is telling me that he has to do this to take off THEIR fake pop-up off of my system.  Thought that was pretty slimy but I played along.

Then he tells me that he needs to clean out my system because it running too slow and has too much junk in it.  So he shows me two screen pages - supposedly one of my hard drive and one of my "junk file." 

First thing I notice is that this is NOT MY FONT SIZE so it could not be my system.  He says, "Here is one problem - you have McAfee running at the same time and this is in conflict with the AVAST program - which is why your system is so slow.  Hmmm #2.  Only problem with that is that I don't and never had McAfee on my system. 

Then he shows me supposedly what is "junk" on my system but I can see for sure now that this is NOT my system.  Hmmm #3.  Do we see a pattern of deception and even fraud here maybe?

Anyway, I didn't take his bait and buy anything.  And the price eventually came down from $199 to about $40 after "talking to his supervisor."   Then he wanted me to take down a number because "he is going to call me back sometime."  I guess his commission is linked to this somehow?

So BEWARE WHEN YOU CALL THEM!  THIS IS FRAUD!

You called a third party support line. Granted, the phone# is listed on the Avast site so they need to take full responsibility for their actions but,
you did not talk to Avast or any of their employees.

[randperry]

I certainly would not even attempt to argue with a man who has over 40,000 posts on here. 

But......this is totally irresponsible (in my eyes) that Avast actually knowingly condones and CONTINUES this type of behavior - no matter how or where third party support (or any support for that matter) is provided by them.

[bob3160]

I certainly would not even attempt to argue with a man who has over 40,000 posts on here. 

But......this is totally irresponsible (in my eyes) that Avast actually knowingly condones and CONTINUES this type of behavior - no matter how or where third party support (or any support for that matter) is provided by them.

I can assure you that Avast doesn't condone this type of behavior.

[schmidthouse]

I certainly would not even attempt to argue with a man who has over 40,000 posts on here. 

But......this is totally irresponsible (in my eyes) that Avast actually knowingly condones and CONTINUES this type of behavior - no matter how or where third party support (or any support for that matter) is provided by them.

I can assure you that Avast doesn't condone this type of behavior.

Avast needs to do something about the complaints of this 3rd party "supposed helpline"

I thought this was addressed and Monitored. Reminiscent of a couple of years ago