UPDATEWell, the account was closed and the money, minus $550, was put in to a new account. New credit card, etc.
Aside from passing themselves off as Microsoft employees, I think that this is a scam where they try to collect large fees for minimal service. They, of course, would deny it and say "
See! We did get rid of some viruses."
The free antivirus programs that "they" downloaded were through her laptop. So "they" aren't using the programs for commercial purposes.
No doubt a year from now, when they try to charge the account again, my wife will receive a "
$550 payment overdue. Pay by phone now, and pay no late charges.".
I'm starting to see the dilemma that Alzheimers can create, when someone
"tihnks" that they are fine, but in reality aren't.
Antivirus programsIn the past she's either turned off the antivirus programs, or they were turned off by one of the viruses.
Before I go further, let me say that I don't think that there is a perfect AV program. The very best of today may be defeated by tomorrow. But you do have to do your best.
To shorten the story, here's a pretty good review of AV programs by PC Magazine -
The Best Antivirus Protection of 2016.
I've tried McAfee, Bitdefender, Norton
(the old Norton AV), Kaspersky, Avast, and a very long time ago, Trend Micro. Some I liked, at least a little. And some I really disliked.
What I had my wife pay for, and what []
I[/i] installed, was
Webroot.
Two reasons. One, I liked the description of how it worked.
And two, is that
(at least for now) if you click through the PC Magazine link (
the SEE IT) under
Webroot, you can get a very nice deal. If you go directly to their site it'll cost $37.49 instead of $29.99. Doesn't hurt to save a little.
AND, that $29.99 can cover three to five computers, tablets, etc. Afterwards, of course, it'll cost more each year. What's new.
But getting back to my tale.
Webroot flags internet searches with a green, yellow, or red symbol. If you click on a red flagged link it'll warn you that you're about to enter a hazard site.
I'm hoping that she'll hesitate before overriding the antivirus.
One of the surprising things is that after warning you about a site that it "thinks" is, or might be, full of viruses, it has a text window where you can ask them to confirm the site really is bad, or state why you don't think that it is.
A long time ago when I did IT work for a small company, I usually had problems with antivirus programs thinking that my networking software tools were hackers tools designed to spread viruses.
It appears that AV programs are still afraid of uncommon programming sites.
What surprised me so much was that after receiving a site warning I sent them a short message explaining why I thought that it was OK.
The surprise? Within 20 minutes the site was green flagged! Impressed me, anyhow.
PasswordsThey don't just do long passwords. You make up a long
(apx. eight or more letters) "Personal Security Code". From that they'll pick any two letters at random, and ask you what they are.
My wife doesn't have a clue about any of this, so there's no way that she can turn the antivirus program off.
Like I said, I like the way that it works.
