What is the “Geek Squad” email scam

The “Geek Squad” email is a scam email that falsely claims recipients have been charged $440.80 for a Geek Squad anti-virus service. The emails are likely pushing a refund scam and aim to trick users into calling the shown phone numbers. The emails are impersonating Geek Squad, Best Buy’s tech support and repair service. It goes without saying that neither Best Buy nor Geek Squad have anything to do with this scam email, their names are merely misused by scammers.

 

 

These Geek Squad scam emails claim that you are about to be charged a couple of hundred dollars for Geek Squad’s anti-virus subscription. One of the emails mentions $440.80 as the price for the supposed subscription. Supposedly, the anti-virus subscription expires today and the charge will be made soon. The email mentions that you can cancel the subscription by calling the provided phone number, in this case, +1-818-921-4805. This kind of email is bound to alarm users who use Geek Squad services because $440 is a significant amount.

These kinds of emails can have several goals. Some may try to phish login credentials, while others may want payment card information. This being a so-called “refund scam” is also a possibility. Refund scams are popular scams that start with a potential victim being asked to call a provided number to cancel a supposed charge. Users who call these numbers get connected to professional scammers who pretend to make a mistake when issuing a refund. For example, instead of refunding $499, the scammer would pretend to refund $4,999. Scammers would act very apologetic and beg users to send the money back because they would supposedly get in trouble and lose their jobs. However, they don’t actually send any money to users.

Scammers need to get remote access to the victim’s device in order to carry out the scam successfully. They will come up with all kinds of reasons why they may need to connect to the victim’s device. If users grant them this access, they would ask that users connect to their online bank account and then display a fake screen to make it seem like users did indeed receive the amount the scammers claim to have sent.

Users who engage with the scammers and send money would be doing it from their own wallets.

Subject:

Greek Squad

Dear Customer,

Thank You for choosing Geek Total Protection.
We have renewed your Subscription as per your electronic consent.
Hope you are with us.
This email is to inform you that an amount of $499.99 has been charged for the services.
For any assistance, please call: +1-808-666-6112.

Order details:
Invoice Number: GS-93404-0841036
Registered Email: –
Service: Geek Total Protection
Renewal Date: May 20, 2022
Next Renewal: May 20, 2023
Item Price: $499.99
Shipping: $0.0
Total Price: $499.99
Note: For any service activation queries or support or if you want to cancel the subscription please call us within 24 Hours for easy assistance.
We are here to assist you with every aspect.

warm regards,
Geek Squad Team
+1-808-666-6112
Copyright © Geek Squad Team | 2022

How can you identify malicious emails?

More skeptical users will usually be able to recognize malicious email campaigns. Malicious actors may also try to make the campaigns easy to recognize to weed out more skeptical users to avoid them recognizing the scam in the middle of it, once scammers have already put some effort in. These malicious emails often have spelling and grammar mistakes, and that’s the most recognizable sign. There are many very obvious mistakes in this Geek Squad scam email, ones you would never see in a legitimate email from Geek Squad.

How an email addresses users can also help you identify whether it’s legitimate. For example, this particular Geek Squad Email addresses recipients with “Dear Geek Squad Customers”, which is an immediate giveaway that it’s not a legitimate email. Companies like Geek Squad address customers by name to make the emails more personal. Malicious emails, on the other hand, always use generic words to address users because cybercriminals often do not have access to users’ personal information.

Geek Squad scam email removal

The email is not harmful if you don’t engage with the scammers. If you get the Geek Squad Email Scam, you can just delete it. If you’re wondering why you received this email in the first place, your email address has likely been leaked. If that is the case, you can expect to get these emails in the future as well. If you want to check whether your email address has been leaked, you can do it on haveibeenpwned. If the email address has been leaked, you need to be very careful with unsolicited emails in the future. Never open unknown email attachments without first scanning them with an anti-virus program or VirusTotal.

If you have fallen for this scam and called the number, you need to be very careful about unwanted phone calls from unknown individuals in the future because you may have been marked as a target. Malicious actors could try to target you again but with a more sophisticated scam.