The avast! phone support scam has been going on for years now. I personally get at least 1 call per month from clients of mine who have been bitten by these scumbags. It shocks me that avast! allows this to happen - I just don’t get it.
If you’ve been scammed into purchasing anything from avast! or its “affiliates”, I recommend contacting your credit card provider and having the charges reversed. This is what I recommend to my clients now. It’s the only reliable way to get a refund.
If you or your clients run into this, report your experience to Adam Riley: riley[at]avast[dot]com
Thank you. I may do that.
If I get around to it, I also am going to call the telephone support myself - posing as a hapless user - record the session, and upload it to YouTube. That way Mr. Riley can see what’s happening directly. I will update this thread next week with a link.
+1!
Most certainly report the incident.
Report the incident(s), that is fine.
Keep in mind that (depending on where you live) recording the session and posting it on the internet can be a illegal act.
Keep in mind that (depending on where you live) recording the session and posting it on the internet can be a illegal act.
Oh crap… All the more reason avast! needs to deal with this themselves. It’s really disgraceful what they’re allowing to happen.
I had the same scam from Avast. I cannot get secure line working, it said “Avast secure line has encountered a technical issue”
When I called, they said They need to remote into my computer, and quoted me $108.00 payable with a credit card for the fix. I am really giving up in disgust with Avast. I have never been so angry with buggy software that slows computers in my life. But the phone fix scam? Sorry, that is the final straw.
I can understand your frustration and obvious disappointment.
I do hope you report your experience as suggested. 
Secureline has a specific area of the forum for it’s discussions, try asking here https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=53.0 for help rather than the third party phone support.
Earlier I posted a simple question, and I see that either my post didn’t go through or for some reason has been deleted:
Can you please describe how the “phone scam” being mentioned here works?
I only ask because if there’s a scam afoot I’d like to know what it is so I can be prepared to avoid it.
I see it’s been described above as something like “I called for support and they quoted me a price to provide help”… If that’s the whole of it, it seems more like a business model than a scam.
And no, I don’t think you should have to pay to get a product to work, but that’s what these forums are good for.
-Noel
I was having trouble getting avast set up for the first time and called in for support. I spoke to a man with an indian accent and he asked to remote into my pc. He opened sysinfo and went to windows error reporting and proceeded to tell me that the fault errors listed there indicated I had a virus and I needed to pay over $100 to get support. He told me that the problem was that I had Malwarebytes installed along with Avast, and that I should only have 1 antivirus software installed.
What this guy didn’t know was I know precisely what fault errors are, what malwarebytes does as opposed to Avast, and what a load of BS he was feeding me. It was a fresh install of windows and there was no possibility of virus on the machine, I had even overwritten the boot record and formatted. The faults were from an old soundblaster driver that I hadn’t updated yet. He was trying to scam me out of my credit card number. No telling what would have happened if I had given it to him.
This, coupled with the fact that most mornings I wake up to a false positive telling me THREAT FOUND but the scan results button doesn’t work and nothing comes up wrong on when scanning with AVAST, ESET, Malwarebytes, Spybot, tdsskiller, rkill, adwcleaner, even combofix, and I am just totally fed up with this software.
I regret having purchased this product and do not plan to renew when my license expires. AT this point I feel I cannot rely on Avast tech support for anything, and am totally on my own for any support issues other than what I can glean from this forum.
It was a fresh install of windows and there was no possibility of virus on the machinePlease explain how you exactly did it.
I needed to pay over $100 to get support.No you did not. support is free. Here on this webboard as well as through the contact form and ticket system on the avast website.
why should you be interested in how he did a fresh install of windows and i have had exact same experience with man with indian accent ,remote control request, then telling me that i needed to pay over £100 to fix errors and so he could remove windows defender! (i have it disabled permanently and use avast) ! my windows install is always mint condition and optimised for my usage!
This is not True. You are wrong. Support is not free. I called Avast support number, and the person told me I had to pay $108.00 for Avast support to dial into my computer, and fix the Avast anti virus secure line. I have since cancelled it, and even after following Avast instructions to stop billing me, they still charge my credit card. You sir are 100% WRONG.
Hello Joseph
I believe a misunderstanding in posts.
The statement that “support is free” I believe was talking about “The Support Is Free Here on this Web board/Forum”
And if you submit a ticket I also believe that too is Free.
The Phone Support you experienced is done by a 3rd Party support service.
There are many,many complaints as yours about this service,
got Avast a few days ago. On come this “microosft partner” icon it says I have 108 registry error in a 1 month old brand new computer. I call the number …after the woman with Indian accent accesses my computer she wants nearly 200 dollars I do not have that kind of money. She was willing to lower it…doubtful) but now am stuck with chrome which i do not want or like and cannot access my internet except through it. I want Chrome gone and anything else she might have put on…how do I do this or to where should I go…BTW she told me I needed a new driver(in a month old computer???) Can anybody he;p me.?
You can safely clean the registry with CCleaner.
Have you tried to uninstall Chrome? ???
You may need to follow these instructions
And start a thread here.
Whatever you do don’t give any money to anyone… it’s a scam.
You can report it all you want but its been going on for years and avast is well aware of it but yet it doesnt stop?Its not going to(from the looks of it).If any other company advertised this as phone support everyone would say that company itself is a scam and cant be trusted but here its ok and the only response is report it and thats from users(which are trying to help) as avast remains silent.dont get me wrong,ive been using avast for a long time but the last year or so really been wondering?