Former/current Norton subscribers beware...

[aristocatz]

...of unauthorized credit card charges.

We are former Norton users. We canceled our account in 2005. Checked our bank account today to see an $80 charge for "automatic annual renewal." I found my old email correspondence from them (I had originally downloaded the services from their main website) and called them up.

As soon as I called, the automated welcome message says, "If you are calling because of a charge to your credit card, it is probably our fabulous new automatic annual renewal system to keep your membership up to date with our great features!..." When I discussed this with the guy, he asked for the # of my original order from 2005 & looked it up and saw that we were no longer subscribers. He removed the charge.

I'm wondering if this is a new sneaky thing they are doing, like some phone companies have started doing-putting "accidental (hidden) charges" on your account, hoping you won't notice....

Just wanted to make you aware, in case this happens to you!

 

[DebbieB]

It's funny because I updated mine last fall and the other day I got an e-mail saying I opted out of automatic renewal (which I did). I just thought it was strange that I got an e-mail now confirming I opted out.

I hate automatic renewals. There are things that I forgot that I ordered and get stuck with an automatic renewal.

 

[ElizK]

McAfee did that to me a few years ago. It's much better (and cheaper!) to go buy a new boxed CD-ROM of the program than to download directly from the site.

I was able to get McAfee to refund my card, wasn't even that difficult. Just annoying that I had to jump through those hoops.

 

[FireDancer]

The majority of commercial AV products are resource hogs, I would stay away from anything McAfee or Symantec (Norton) outside of the corporate environment. I am an Information Systems Coordinator at a financial institution so a large part of my job is security. The only AV I run at home or on any computer I set up (which is a lot, as anyone who is the computer guy in their ring of friends knows) is AVG or Avast. Both are available here.

AVG is simple and kind of a hands off solution where Avast has a few more options.

No AV software though will protect you from you. Make sure you stay away from links or .exe files you don't know. I would also highly highly recommend running Firefox with the No Script plug in instead of Internet Explorer, at least on a Windows PC.

 

[aristocatz]

The majority of commercial AV products are resource hogs, I would stay away from anything McAfee or Symantec (Norton) outside of the corporate environment. I am an Information Systems Coordinator at a financial institution so a large part of my job is security. The only AV I run at home or on any computer I set up (which is a lot, as anyone who is the computer guy in their ring of friends knows) is AVG or Avast. Both are available here.

AVG is simple and kind of a hands off solution where Avast has a few more options.

No AV software though will protect you from you. Make sure you stay away from links or .exe files you don't know. I would also highly highly recommend running Firefox with the No Script plug in instead of Internet Explorer, at least on a Windows PC.

I agree! We actually left Norton for AVG-free & much better! Norton ended up putting alot of unnecessary crap on my computer and messed it up. We have been very happy with AVG.