Good morning from Australia. New community member here.
Yesterday whilst browsing a pop-up appeared, purporting to be from McAfee, inviting me to renew my LiveSafe subscription, which came with the laptop, and which had "special offers" for both 1-year and 2-year renewal terms. Although my subscription needs to be renewed in due course, it's not yet, and not within one month. Given the recent major hack down here and although never with the hacked company Optus, I proceeded cautiously. A couple of clicks took me to a page purporting to be from McAfee, with a tile entitled "Purchase or Renew" and then the number 1800-879-202, but oddly the actual tile was dead and did not respond to clicking to a page where I could pay. I called the number twice, once from my smartphone, and the second time from my landline. The response was similar both times, but not identical. On both occasions the call eventually connected, but only to a recorded message part-way through - American accent starting with the words "...McAfee Customer Support..." and then giving me two options, to dial 1 for the first, and 2 for the second; neither was relevant to purchase or renewal. I tried 2 from my smartphone, and 1 from my landline. The smartphone call appeared to connect to a real female person who asked who I wanted to speak to, to which I replied McAfee after which there was silence and then a pre-recorded message to the effect that the number could not be connected and try again later. On the landline there was nothing but the "can't be connected try again later " message.
Going back to the purported McAfee page I noted that in one place there was unprofessionally worded sentence with an obvious mistake - I won't say what - and I suspect that the whole pop-up is not a genuine McAfee message. The number to call appears genuine.
I'd like an answer, if anyone has one. Is this genuine? I can't see the scam, although I think it must be one somewhere, somehow,, and McAfee doesn't have any financial information on me because the subscription came with the laptop. They have just my name and email address.
My understanding is that one month before the subscription expires I will receive an email from McAfee inviting me to renew. Is this correct?
Thank you.