Recently, a handful of customers forwarded me emails to see if this was something that needed to be taken care of.
They’re hoping you’ll fall for the trick and respond based on emotion — no one wants to see a charge for hundreds of dollars which they didn’t authorize!
They’re hoping you’ll call them at the number in the email…
Which once they get you on the phone, there are any number of scams they’re going to try and pull:
- Trick you into visiting some website to input your credit card info. for a “refund.”
- Trick you into visiting some website/typing in a command to start remote access to your computer.
- Get you to give them your credit card info. over the phone.
- Etc., etc., etc.
And the emails all look very similar, but clearly, they are NOT from “Norton” (Symantec), as seen in the sender info.:
The text and phone number change just a little (helps avoid spam detection):
Nonetheless, it’s a complete scam.
Norton (Symantec) is never going to email from an ‘@gmail.com’ email address.
I was so proud of our customers for sending me these, because they knew something seemed off and they’d rather verify with The Computer Peeps vs. falling into a trap. 🙂
Update: 2/28/2023
One of our customers messaged-in after receiving what they already knew was a bogus email (so proud!), to send through an updated version of this Norton 360 scam email.
It appears as though they’re using Outlook.com for sending emails now, as opposed to Gmail previously. Maybe Google cracked-down on them and Microsoft hasn’t, but I can only speculate. I just wanted to update this post with the new information in case this helps someone else out there.
Dean
I am a Software Developer, System Administrator, and consignment software specialist. I currently manage hundreds of consignment workstations, point of sale systems, and database servers all across North America and I am the developer of Peeps' Software, Peeps2Go, and Peeps' Consignor Login for iOS and Android. I've been helping consignment & resale store-owners since 2003. I started The Computer Peeps in February of 2010. Peeps' Software launched in 2016 and is now on hundreds of systems all across North America. I have successfully converted dozens of stores from all of the major consignment software systems. After 20 years of working with consignment stores, I understand the unique challenges consignment & resale store-owners face. From electrical issues in old buildings or strip malls, to advocating for them when their old consignment software keeps crashing.