Spoke to McAfee tech, said I needed a network firewall? Many people on my I.P. address???

[ssmall012]

Hey!  I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge.  I have been scouring the forums this morning in regards to an issue I spoke to McAfee technician about last night on my father's laptop.  All I know (for future reference) is, he has Windows 8, bout the computer maybe 2 years ago, we have WiFi through a router with our local cable company. 

My dad bought McAfee Firewall I think, and installed it two days ago bc his computer won't let him log onto his bank account anymore after installing the Firewall, and won't let him look at weather.com 7 day forecast.  He keeps getting the message at the top that says we have blocked this content for.... yada yada yada.... So I thought maybe I could save them as "safe" websites, well that didn't work, all the normal, rebooting, defrag, etc. none of that worked.

So I called McAfee since the NEW problem was with the firewall blocking the websites he's been previously using forever

As I was telling the technician about everything, I allowed him access into my father's laptop and he started showing me all the ad pop ups that shouldn't be there (Which my father says are a neuisance but put up with anyways bc the pop up blocker was still turned on but they kept coming up. He would just ignore them.  Eventually the technician got fed up with me showing him the websites and the error messages and took control (Thank goodness) and started pulling up these files that we needed to delete that shouldn't be there and then pulled up something with a black background and white font that showed our I.P. address and where we were logged in, and then ALLLLL the other people (I'm assuming) that are logged in and "waiting" for my father to click on a pop up ad.  There were over 100 "waiting" and already 3-5 that had access. 

The technician kept saying "oh, wow"  or "oh my!" and ended up showing me something called rundll23exe ??  I meant to write it down but I thought I could remember it.  He made me read outloud the description of this and it stated that it was a very malicious threat to the network, etc.  Basically he told me he could not help me and would have to forward me to someone else who in turn could help with getting a "Network Firewall" for about $150 for the first month.

We could not afford that at the moment but will be something we will look into if these responses are all the same as his was.  My brother thought maybe we could just 'assign' my father a new I.P. address or call the cable company and see if they could bring out a new router?  Wouldn't that just stop the threat since it's a new I.P. and not the old one?? ((or is that just wishful thinking?))

Any info/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much!

[selvan]

Please post back the Service Request that you received from the Tech whom you talked to. If you haven't been given one then I seriously doubt you might have been scammed by a 3rd party Tech Support.

[ssmall012]

I don't think I've been scammed by any means.  I was just explaining what the Tech was talking about.  I don't have a "service request" ??  He was very nice and very informative, but said he can't do the "network firewalls" and that I needed to speak to someone in that dept. which after figuring out the cost, we could not do at the moment. 

So I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions about our issue or if this does indeed sound like we need a Network Firewall in place to make all of this stop.  We are clueless on how to proceed short of buying a new laptop...........

Thanks

[SafeBoot · Accepted solution]

you've been scammed, and you didn't call the real McAfee, and most likely, you didn't install real McAfee software either - you called a scammer for sure, because nothing from McAfee consumer costs $150 a month, or $150 at all.

No, you don't need a "network firewall"

rundll32.exe is a standard part of Windows, it's used for lots of legitimate things, it's also something that the crappy scammers use to convince people their computers are infected though.

Let's start at the beginning - what EXACTLY did you father install, and where did you get it from?

What number did you call, and where did you get that number from?

[ssmall012]

WOW, good to know..... Honestly I'm not sure where he got it from, he did say he renewed it online, and paid something like $60 for it !!!  He said it is a McAfee Firewall software.....

I'm not sure of the # we called, 800-666-0548 which I found on McAfee's website on his laptop (which, looking back, obviously they had blocked the content of the real website and gave me theirs).  Sneaky! 

I feel terrible.  I'm a 29 year old female who usually (without knowing the ins and outs) is honestly pretty good with computers.  Everything he was showing us on my father's computer seemed legit, and now I'm even more worried bc I gave him the "access" to get into his laptop through some sort of website (which I've seen done so I thought it was legit). 

Any suggestions on what to do from here?  Sounds like it's going to be a 'buy a new laptop' or 'take it in for a couple hundred dollars to fix' solution...............

[ssmall012]

Googled the # and it brings up MAXLIVE IT SOLUTIONS - google map shows a house in PA.

Great...... Is this guy in my dad's computer now?  So worried everything is compromised....

[exbrit]

Simple answer is disconnect from the Internet and then uninstall any software they may have installed.

If money has changed hands see if credit card companies will reverse charge it.

[catdaddy]

,

                      I can assure you that the number you posted is Not McAfee Technical Support. To self assure yourself that you indeed have a (Active) subscription you can contact McAfee Technical Support/Customer Service 24/7 and it is (Free). Via Phone/Online Chat being much quicker:

                      Having said this, you have to be dilligent in making certain you are not being scammed by 'Fake Support Companies'

Regards,

Catdaddy

McAfee Community Moderator

Consumer Products

[SafeBoot]

well first report it to your local FBI office - https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber

Then probably the safest and encompassing  thing to do is reinstall the OS from the disks you got with the computer (after backing up any data etc.

If you don't want to do that, then most of these scams are pretty low tech - if they asked you to install some remote access software, just uninstall it. Their game is to make you buy something - not spy on you.

You can download and run Stinger, or hitmanpro etc if you want to confirm there's no malware left.

[catdaddy]

Moving this to Consumer > General Discussion > Discussions as it seems more appropriate.

Cliff

Moderator