What is Geek Squad Email Scam and How to Avoid It?

Geek Squad Email Scam falsely claims that a costly subscription renewal has been completed

Geek Squad Email Scam is an actively distributed email spam campaign. It provides false claims about user’s renewal of Geek 360 or Total Protection Subscription. The email contains a subject line stating “Transaction Confirmation” and its contents suggest that the user’s subscription to Geek Squad services has been renewed “as per electronic consent” allegedly provided by the computer user. The email also falsely states that a high amount of money, for example, $499.99 has been charged for the services. Finally, the email includes a scammer’s phone number (1+808-666-6112).

Geek Squad (Best Buy subsidiary) is a company that provides support through in-store, on-site, over the Internet via remote access, and also via telephone regarding all consumer electronics. However, this company has nothing to do with the scammers who use its name for committing fraud. Another noticeable detail is that these emails are usually sent from bot email accounts, typically Gmail, iCloud and similar.

Since legitimate companies usually assign email addresses with the company’s domain, this is yet another reason not to trust the sender’s claims. Therefore, if you have received a similar email to the described ones, just ignore it.

Geek Squad Email Scam is meant to scare you. Your bank account is not, and will not be charged, no matter what the email says. Ignore it – the threat actors send the same email to thousands of people daily. The scammers are trying to scare you and trick you into calling them, so they could tell more lies to you. Their aim is usually to convince you to purchase gift cards or pay for services by deceit.

Norbert Webb

What happens if you call the phone number provided in Geek Squad Email Scam?

If the victim falls for Geek Squad Renewal Email Scam and tries contacting the scammers via provided number, several things can happen. Typically, the victims rush to get some explanation on why they have been charged – sometimes even without checking their bank balance first.

After calling the provided number, the victim may be greeted by a scammer who pretends to be a Geek Squad’s employee. From this point onward, the scammer acts according to several scenarios prepared in advance. Therefore, the situation can go in variety of ways. For example, the scammer might try to swindle valuable information from the victim – including full name, credit card details, social security number, and other data.

In other scenarios, if the victim insists on cancelling the subscription, they might request a cancellation fee to be paid to them.

On top of that, the scammer might create stories why the victim needs this subscription or claim that there was a problem detected on victim’s computer or home network. At this point, they may request to connect to victim’s computer remotely. They may detect an issue, pretend to fix it and require payment for applying the “fix.”

After gaining remote access to victim’s PC, the crooks may also silently install malware on the computer. If this is the case, you may want to use a robust antivirus solution like INTEGO Antivirus to remove the malware and then download RESTORO to repair virus damage on Windows OS files. Read the instructions provided below the article on how to delete malware via Safe Mode with Networking on Windows.

TIP: Do not provide the scammer with valuable information, whether it is your personal information, credit card information, or data required to access your computer remotely.

Threat Summary

Name	Geek Squad Email Scam
Type	Email Scam, Phishing, Telephone Scams
Email subject line	Transaction Confirmation, Your Order Receipt From [date], Check Your Invoice, Thank You
Deceptive statement	We have renewed your subscription as per your electronic consent. This email is to inform you that an amount of $499.99 has been charged for the services.
Scammers’ email addresses	imocor@consulnetti.com, martinelllinkergmuv8596@gmail.com, frankthomas7887@gmail.com, Lily.sheppard44@icloud.com, virgiliostutzmanq169@gmail.com, hodgwesbrian@gmail.com, info@geek-squadservices24.co and others
Contact phones	+1-808-666-6112, +1-888-738-8146, +1-888-695-6573, +1-888-992-0664, +1-888-576-9533, +1-802-321-0108, +1-888-593-3963, +1-808-809-5897, +1-888-459-2122, +1-888-229-6276, +1-802-214-8676, +1-818-483-4225, +1-888-526-2865, +1-888-682-2165, +1-818-221-1901, +1-844-232-6022 and others
Potential damage	After communicating with the scammers via email, the victim may be tricked into revealing personal information, credit card details, or credentials to remotely access one’s computer. As a consequence, the criminals might actually swindle money from your or even drop malware on your computer.
Distribution	Email spam campaigns
Removal	If you suspect that scammers dropped malware on your computer via remote desktop connection, remove it from your PC using trustworthy software. To repair virus damage on Windows OS files, consider scanning with RESTORO (secure download link).

Examples of Geek Squad Email Scam emails

The design of Geek Squad Email Scam campaigns is similar, and so are the messages from the criminals. Here is an example of a scam that claims the user will be charged $579.99 for a 3-year subscription. The number provided by the scammers is 1-888-695-6573.

We Are Renewing It For You
Dear Customer Your Personal Subscription With Geek Squad Will Expire Today. The Subscription Will Be Auto Renewed. Hope Your Are Happy With The Services.

Another scam claims the user will be charged $399.99 due to auto-renewal of plan for 2 years. The scammers also include a fake order summary and provide a hotline phone number – 1-888-738-8146.

Dear Customer
Thank you for choosing our services. We are reaching out to remind you that your computer Protection Annual subscription has expired and Auto-Renewed today.
We would like to thank you for the completion of the maintenance plan.

You can see screenshots of these scam emails below.

An example text from one of these scam emails is shown below.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Order Number: tYTcX-mwL3Bt-bGHn
Helpline: (808) 809-5897
logo
[Name] Thank you for our support!
Your membership at Geek Squad is about to expire on Sunday, August 21, 2022. We hope you’ve enjoyed benefits of your membership for the last five year.
Good news!! Now we have one time renewal membership at low price of $678.99. As the membership is an auto-renewal so it has been renewed for the next five year.
Your Order Is On Its Way
ORDER DETAILS:
Transaction No: WJD7890UR9980US
Item: Geek Squad Personal Home Membership
Renewal Amount: $678.99
Tenure: 5 Year Support
CLIENT DETAILS:
Client: [Name]
Client ID: 435869452
Client Email: [ E-mail]
If you have any questions regarding your membership, benefits, or renewal, please don’t hesitate to reach out by replying to this email or calling us at (808) 809-5897.
Copyright @ 2022 Geek Squad All rights reserved.
Accounts Head: KOSAL BOV
Our Mailing Address: 620 3rd st3rd fl Gainesville GA 30501 United States
Unsubscribe – Unsubscribe Preferences

Geek Squad Email Scam example

Yet another example of such scam emails reports about renewal of Geek 360 Subscription. The email suggests that user’s account has been debited for $249.89. In case the recipient needs additional information or wants to cancel the subscription, the scammer suggests calling a provided number, which is +1 844 232 6022. Again, if you have received this message, simply delete it.

Another sample of this scam that has reached our email warns about renewal of Geek Secure 360 Protect plan and claims $385.99 will be deducted from our account. The provided scammer’s number is +1 (818) 221-1901. This fake email sender is info[at]geek-squadservices24.co.

Here’s another example of this scam email. An interesting detail that often reveals the sender isn’t who he claims to be is errors in the message body – in this case, you can see the inconsistency of capitalization of the words.

There are many more examples of this scam as the perpetrators keep changing the design regularly. However, as it can be seen from these examples, the perpetrators are trying to replicate the design of the real Geek Squad emails as they include the official logo and promotional banners used by the company.

These emails usually claim that a certain amount of money will be deducted from the user’s bank account, which causes fear for the target and prompts them to call the phone number provided.

How to identify and avoid phishing emails?

In general, scammers use phishing emails to extract sensitive information or gain remote access to victim’s computer to perform some illegal actions on it. The analysis of such emails over time showed that threat actors use similar patterns of deceptive social engineering tactics. Let us provide you with some tips on how to recognize such emails and avoid them.

1. Do not trust that the sender’s email is legitimate – it might be spoofed. If you have some concerns regarding the email you just received, but the sender’s email appears to be coming from a well-known company or a person – check if it wasn’t spoofed. Email spoofing is a technique that allows the attacker to display a different sender’s email for the recipient rather than the original one.
2. Look out for urgent calls for action or threats. Scammers try to create a false sense of urgency to trick the target into acting without thinking. They seek to force the victim to search for solution to avoid potential problems described in the email even without checking the facts or researching the credibility of the sender’s statements.
3. Check for text errors. Scammers rarely know a thing about perfect grammar. Although they try their best to compose convincing emails that also include backgrounds, images and logos, it is still easy to spot that the email wasn’t sent by a reputable company since there are some easily noticeable typographical, spelling, preposition or punctuation errors.
4. Inspect the greeting line. Most of scam emails are sent out using automatic tools that are programmed to insert the recipient’s name using the prefix part of the email address. That said, you should know that legitimate companies usually know your real first and last name and address you by your full name. For instance, if your email address is sunflower99@exampleemail.com, the scammer most likely will greet you with “Dear Sunflower99” or similar line rather than using your real name. Likewise, some scammers simply use “Dear valued customer” or “Dear Sir/Madam” when addressing potential victims.
5. Ask yourself if you have any connection with the sender of the email. For example, think whether you have ordered any products or services from the respective online store that the email sender claims you did so. If you didn’t, do not interact with the email attachments, links, and do not call numbers provided in it. If you want to investigate further, find the company’s contact information online rather than using those provided by the suspected spammer. Reach out to the company and ask if it has sent you this email.
6. Do not rush to click on links or open email attachments. Lastly, avoid interacting with URLs or files attached to the email. Phishing emails often include attachments that seem to be regular documents. Unfortunately, they may contain scripts that are used to download and run malware on victim’s computer. In general, if you are sure that the email isn’t dangerous and you want to open the attached file, make sure you do not open it directly, but save it and scan with an antivirus first.

Remove malware from your computer

In case you have had interactions via telephone with scammers and even worse, if you were tricked to provide remote desktop connection to your computer, we strongly advise that you scan your PC with a robust antivirus solution to remove malware and other threats that may have been installed by the criminals. You can find a comprehensive and free tutorial below.

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Our team recommends a two-step rescue plan to remove ransomware and other remaining malware from your computer, plus repair caused virus damage to the system:

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