I wanted to download the free version of Avast antivirus software. Using the Bing search engine, I typed in 'avast' and their first listing was for a site www.avast-software.com. I wrongly assumed that as it was first in the list, that this was the genuine site. I went there and was surprised to be asked for money to download Avast. As there are also pay versions of this software, I just thought I may as well download the pay version as it would be better anyway. So I paid £29 via Paypal to this site and then tried to download what I thought was Avast.
Luckily the security bar on my Internet Explorer browser prevented the download. I began to feel suspicious, so I checked the next listing on Bing, which turned out to be the REAL avast site. I had been misdirected to a site that LOOKED like Avast, and had unwittingly paid for 'life membership to Software HQ' which is a site that supposedly allows the user to download lots of software in one go.
This is wrong as the software listed is either free anyway, so why pay to download OR if it's not free, then why pay extra to download. It gets worse - when I downloaded Avast from the correct site, and installed it on my PC, it almost immediately intercepted malware originating from Software Hq site!
Incidentally, when I went to the Google search engine, the first listing was the genuine site, and this scam site was nowhere to be seen. I am intending to check with Paypal, whether there is any need for me to change my Paypal login details (as the fake Avast site had a link to paypal) Also I will contact Avast to let them know someone is using their name and claiming to sell their product. And I think Bing should not be allowing a fake site to be in their listings, let alone be no.1 in the list!
Not happy :(
0 comments