I just paid $715.15 for a five-year subscription to McAfee Total Protection covering 20 devices. At least, that’s what some unknown individual wants me to believe.
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The news of my transaction came in the form of an email delivered to my personal account, with a PDF file attached. Here’s what the attachment looked like.
This fake invoice is convincing enough to fool an unsophisticated recipient
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
That “receipt” looks official, doesn’t it? Especially to an inexperienced person who doesn’t have the experience to spot the telltale signs of a scam. You’ve probably seen similar phishing emails, congratulating you on your purchase of a subscription to McAfee or Norton Internet Security or some other brand that’s well-known to consumers.
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The amount of the supposed transaction is usually just high enough to alarm you. And if you don’t realize it’s a scam, your first reaction is to pick up the phone and call the toll-free number on the invoice so you can explain that it’s all a mistake and you never ordered those products and ask them to please reverse the charges.
How the scam works
So, what happens if you call the number on that receipt? Thanks to an affidavit filed as part of a U.S. Federal court case in the Southern District of Mississippi, we now have a detailed description of this scam in operation. (Hat tip to Seamus Hughes and his excellent Court Watch newsletter for the link.)
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