GuruAid questionable
Complaint
Scam warning
Country: United States
I called what was supposedly a support number for Malwarebytes because the scan identified a trojan, said it was quarantined and deleted, restarte my computer, but every time I can the scan again, the same trojan showed up. What I reached was a company in India called GuruAid. The tech came into my computer, went to Start and opened "Event Viewer" > Windows Logs > Applications. Under that list are all the "Errors" and 4 were listed as "Critical." This guy tried to tell me those were all "infected" files. He said they could fix/clean my computer and then became extremely aggressive about money, saying fixing it would cost something like $167 and that I needed a 2-year support plan for 299.99 in addition to the repair fee. He was very pushy and argued that there was no other solution and that their company was reputable, showing me their website that has a "BBB" and a "Microsoft" supposedly approval, but the BBB page he showed me was for a Lester company with no mention of GuruAid. I did not want to give them any money. After I got off the phone, I looked up the Applications list on the Event Viewer, and the "errors" he had shown me had nothing to do with "infection." One was the errors I get for my HP Photosmart printer that is missing some program on Windows 7. He told me it meant my Microsoft Installer was supposedly corrupted by the virus. The 4 "Critical" ones said it was a shut-down that didn't follow the usual process, such as a computer freeze, power outage or crash, again nothing to do with an "infection."
I did all the WIndows Updates, it found a "threat" and removed it, and my scans, both my anti-virus program and Malwarebytes were completely clean after that.
I did all the WIndows Updates, it found a "threat" and removed it, and my scans, both my anti-virus program and Malwarebytes were completely clean after that.
Comments
If they defrauded you, dispute the charge through your bank.
Your bank can reverse the charges under FRB Reg. E or FCBA.
There is another cluster of fraud complaints associated with a call center in Mumbai India associated with fraudulent telemarketing, including intercepting calls intended for major US company customer service numbers, for companies including major banks, utililties, and insurance companies, using 1 digit off 800 numbers to catch dialing errors.
"Lester" usually shows up as a name associated with "consumer survey" call complaints, but they may also operate call centers for other types of clients.
Both complaint clusters point to the possibility of fraudulent telemarketing activity focussed on misrepresenting who they are and what they are charging for. The second cluster indicates that Indian scammers have the capability to intercept calls intended for major US companies, and use the captured customer calls to fraudulently obtain card number information and use it for fraudulent charges.
If they are referring you to some BBB page, which doesn't even apparently refer to them, it may indicate they are creating fake webpages to support the appearance that they are legitimate, but they screwed up.
There appears to be some GuruAid "company" showing up in complaints, along with obvious shill posts trying to refute the complaints. That usually happens with fraudulent operations rather than merely incompetent ones, since the fraudulent ones are expecting complaints.
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/La0BAAAAAAA/guru-aid
Key question is: are they screw-ups, or are they a scam.
What number did you think you were calling to reach them?
What number did you actually call, perhaps verified from your phone log or recently dialed call memory?
Is there evidence they are grabbing 1 digit off phone numbers, consistent with a scam?
It confirmed they had clear connections to NORTON. Time both these companies went down the tubes and I have had nothing but annoying errors ever since and a follow up call from the good Indian Lady in the States telling me I had signed up to a maintence contract when I had done nothing of the kind.
I have changed my log on password and cancelled my credit card which I reccomend anyone who gets similarly conned does IMMEDIATELY
THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS ISSUE WHICH GOES FAR BEYOND THE CURRENT PROBLEMS.
check up. Oh boy! 932 errors. They would remove and clean up computer for $120.00 After about three hours on phone and and $269 dollars later computer was supposed to be tip-top. Surprise!!
It took me four times longer to get on the desired site because of all thee junk that popped up. I was talked in to having a maintenance agreement for both computers for a year. A few days later I called to have
computer fixed again, every time it was worse. I read that they have a 30 day warranty so on day 29 I
e-mailed customer service guruaid cancelling all service and requesting a refund. After many minutes on the phone, after no response to e mail, I had to explain that I was not happy with service and wanted total refund several times, Offer was made to fix computer again for me. No way! Every time they fixed it , it was worse. Just cancel and total refund of $269.00 . Supervisor said had to charge for service $120.
I asked you take you car to garage to get fixed, fixed problem, but caused others, would you pay?
Anyway, I am supposed to get a refund of $149.99 in 4-5 days Not total loss but time consuming
experience. Need a class action lawsuit ! Is there one?