Email says Avast has expired; Avast on computer says it expires next month.

[Geezer69]

My wife keeps receiving emails telling her that Avast is about to expire, while Avast on her machine says it expires December 1, 2011.  Today, she received an email that says Avast has expired and her system is no longer protected. However, Avast is still running, still says the expiry date is December 1, 2011, and still shows the system as being fully protected.

Why is this email appearing?
Why won't it let her renew the free version?

[Pondus]

Why is this email appearing?

have you had and older version on the system before....that the mail may be for ?

Why won't it let her renew the free version?

i dont think you can do it before the last 14 days.....there should be some popups telling you

[DavidR]

I have never received an email from avast saying my avast is about to expire, I don't know if this is a change in policy or not. So for now I would be suspicious of such emails unless you know the origin to be genuine I wouldn't go clocking any links in the email.

Is the email that this is being sent to the email address she used when she registered originally ?

The new avastUI, Maintenance, Registration interface doesn't change until 14 days before re-registration is required. So in a couple of weeks you should see that happen and you would also get an avast pop-up notification also.

[alpha1]

they're  unlikely to be from avast,specially given the fact they're so clumsily done.
firstly there seems to be many of them,not just 1,secondly,they contradict each other and real avast program.

[Geezer69]

I have never received an email from avast saying my avast is about to expire, I don't know if this is a change in policy or not. So for now I would be suspicious of such emails unless you know the origin to be genuine I wouldn't go clocking any links in the email.

     I've never received an email from avast regarding expiry, either, so I treated it as suspicious.

Is the email that this is being sent to the email address she used when she registered originally ?

     Yes, it was sent to her registered email address, supposedly from Avast Software (news@email.avast.com).

The new avastUI, Maintenance, Registration interface doesn't change until 14 days before re-registration is required. So in a couple of weeks you should see that happen and you would also get an avast pop-up notification also.

     I opened her avast UI and located the Registration link which was active. I renewed avast and it now shows an expiry date of Oct. 31, 2012.

[Geezer69]

Thanks to Pondus, DavidR, and alpha1 for your quick replies!       I have renewed my wife's free license for avast. The email looks as if it could be bogus based on your comments. Do you know if the avast support people are aware of it?   

[alpha1]

greezer69,you're welcome.
avast team and maybe experienced forum members shall determine the authenticity of the email address you posted.

good luck.

[DavidR]

Thanks to Pondus, DavidR, and alpha1 for your quick replies!       I have renewed my wife's free license for avast. The email looks as if it could be bogus based on your comments. Do you know if the avast support people are aware of it?   

You're welcome.

The email address that it is from is easily faked, so the other information in the headers IP addresses, mail server names, etc. can determine the origin, but you would need tools to determine that. So given that the Registration interface has changed earlier than 14 days away, which coincides with the email it is possible that the policy has changed. So it may have been a genuine email.

As avast Users we aren't privy to what support might know. Given all of the above I would still suggest that you could save the email to a file and attach that saved file to an email and send to virus (at) avast (dot) com, with possible undetected malware / possible phishing email in the subject. The purpose of having undetected malware in the subject is so that it gets redirected and action.

Give an outline of the situation and a link to this topic wouldn't hurt.

[Geezer69]

DavidR, thanks for the contact information for avast support.  I have sent the email file to them for analysis as you suggested.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

Hopefully it will be resolved quickly.