Nice try, Janaye!

Well, it's Groundhog Day, so it's no surprise to see an online scam pop its head out.

Mine was from someone going by the handle Janaye, who emailed to tell me:

You’re Yearly Product Subscription FOR McAfee Computer Security Has Been AND Updated Successfully

You're Yearly Product???? 

Has Been AND Updated?

You're got to be kidding me. One would think that international scam artists would hire someone who was a tad more familiar with the English language.

And you'd think that any scammer worth their salt would use a fake email address - something like janaye@mcafeescam.com - that looked a bit more professional and authentic than janayeXXXX@gmail.com. Not to mention send the email directly to my email address, rather than bcc-ing me on a generic customerXXXX@gmail.com.

Anyway, I was informed that my subscription would be renewing in the next day or so, and I would be charged - get this - $399.65. Which is an order of magnitude greater than what one would pay for a box o' McAfee.

Oh, Janaye, you're - or is it your - out of your fake scammin' mind if you think I'd pay this for that. I mean, I make some crazy purchase mistakes, but this ain't going to be one of them.

The kicker, of course, is that if I want to cancel my nonexistent subscription "and Claim A Refund" I should "Call Refund & Settlement Dept."

I should "Call Refund & Settlement Dept.?"

Who wrote this email? Boris Badenov? Or was it Natasha Nogoodnik?

And I should call and give you my credit card info so you can reverse the charges? 

Let me get on that right away.

I can see how people can get sucked into these scams. They're distracted. They're busy. They're panicked they're going to be stuck with this crazy overcharge. 

Even reasonably bright and savvy folks, under the right conditions, could fall for this. 

Which is what Janaye, Boris, and Natasha are banking on. 

This scam has been rolling around for a few years, by the way. And McAfee - the real McAfee (you know, the security company founded by the late nutter John McAfee) - has something to say about it:

Sorry for the inconvenience caused. We would like to inform you that McAfee communicates with the customer with e-mail address ending with (domain) mcafee.com.

This e-mail is not legitimate so we request you to move this e-mail to the spam folder so that the sender will be blocked from sending mail to your e-mail address in future.

Not to worry!

As for Janaye: nice try!