Hi everyone. Have you signed up to McAfee or Norton virus protection as advertised online only to find the service is actually on offer from someone completely unknown to you? I have. I signed up and found I was talking to a bunch in the UK called Zeefa Technologies. All very charming and helpful, offering to enter your computer and search for bugs etc. That cost me $399 for the year. Apparently they found and removed something but how was I to know whether they did or not? Now the payment and coverage has expired Iâm getting threatening messages like âyour address has been used to send offensive material. 8 people have complained. Renew nowâ.
Post has been edited to reflect information in the subsequent posts
As for $399 per annum, genuine personal subscriptions are fractions of that amount. If it is a commercial service targeting small businesses or individuals with full service AV management it may be competitive although probably unwarranted for the latter.
Why would anyone be complaining to them or know how or why to complain to them about your email address/traffic â unless they are hosting or have developed a web page for you.
Regardless many people have their web sites compromised as well as email addresses stolen or fallaciously used to send out all sorts of spam, scams, and âadultâ material. Fear sells, if that makes a point to how you may be getting played to renew.
I suggest you run paid (see Choice review that is subscriber locked - or check resources like PCMag or Toms Hardware for their reviews), or scan with a free AV (such as Windows AV) and malwarebytes on your computer because you may have been left with a bot or worse.
There are companies that, for an ongoing fee, manage your computer system. Security, threat scanning and removal, backups, etc.
To do so they will need remote access. And they will install and use tools like Norton AV, and provide the tech support for whatever they use.
It sounds like one has signed up to such a company that offers that service, when it probably was not the intention. It is usually small businesses that use these management services, not private computer users.
Iâm just suggesting one possible scenario other than it being an outright hacker at work.
As for the rather scary warning about renewing the subscription. Well not all businesses act like saints do they? Information about this business seems very hard to find, suggesting to me they should be avoided.
It appears you have engaged the services of an IT services company, which provides paid support for antivirus software (McAfee, Trend Micro, Bitfinder, etc).
What has happened is you have read an advertisement and accepted their offer for the service, which is $399/year.
I am unsure what benefits additional paid support would offer over standard support from the antivirus, such as McAfee provider. It could be basic support such as they install a licensed version of the software and carry out a scan to see if any malware is present at the time of installation. This can be done by anyone with basic IT skills.
I personally would never allow anyone to do this. Allowing remote access is high risk and can be used by hackers or criminals to access personal information, install malware or corrupt a device (such as ransomware).
It possibly highlights the type of business they are - interested in making money than providing a service.
It will be cheaper to renew your annual subscription direct with McAfee or potentially even cheaper buying a licence through reputable retailer such as Officeworks.
The company, with offices in India, USA, and UK, states they provide the following services on their LinkedIN profile - Web Development, Website Design, Web Domain, SEO, Content Development, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing, Application Development, Mobile Application Development, eCommerce, and SMO
Nothing explicitly about security services although they might include it under one of the categories?
They appear to be an online shop and also provide a web hosting service. They state they are involved in a number of other infotech related activities such as programming. They are resellers of the AV products of which they onsell a number of them.
Most of their sites have certificates that were through GoDaddy and most have expired over 350 days ago, as @PhilT notes this does not inspire confidence in the business. The only active https certificate supported site that I could find was their store site and the site is a Shopify powered one so may be using a certificate through Shopify services for hosting the shopping portal, it is a hosted website within another website (which is shopify which will have valid certificates).
Trustworthy? Unlikely in my opinion, as most of their sites are unsafe for users to access with any degree of trust.
Discussion about expired certificates is irrelevant as they would have been current over a year ago when the subscription was purchased⊠assuming the purchase was made through the website.
Expired certificates suggests the website isnât maintained. This isnât a sin and could suggest the business no longer uses the websiteâŠbut uses Facebook or other platforms instead. I know of a couple of small businesses which donât maintain their websites as they donât generate traffic through them, but use other online presence for their business. This isnât wrong, but what best suits their business.
No it isnât a sin but for a business that purports to be professional and involved in a number of IT activities it does appear unprofessional and not trustworthy in my opinion.
Then the texts or emails received appear to be pressure tactics and again an unprofessional approach to sustaining income streams. Many product companies use similar techniques but that does not instil any confidence in them in my view, rather it points to just a desire to take money for profit from my perspective.
While mostly highly positive, Scamadviser has these negative highlights about the sites. Similar advice for the all the non Shopify sites.
Negative highlights
According to Tranco this site has a low rank
We found a negative association on Social Media
According to the SSL check, the certificate is not valid
ScamAdviserâs view on the SSL certificate issue for sites (any secured site)
No valid SSL certificate could be found. This is usually a bad sign. An SSL certificate secures communication between your computer and the website. If there is no SSL certificate communicate is not safe. Only if you never have to enter data (like logging in or filling in a form) an SSL certificate is not really essential.
If you visit the non https site, you can complete forms that require personal information to be supplied, this is unencrypted traffic so is a risk. I sent some false info using a disposable address for a quote and received an auto response that my request would be reviewed with 48 hours. Not every user is cybersecurity aware of the risks of sending unencrypted data over the net. Again, a poor showing on their behalf.
I agree there is a risk, but saying they are unprofessional or not trustworthy is an opinion which may be wrong. See what Scam Adviser indicates below.
I agree and I covered this in my first post. If what is reported is correct, it seems the business in question focuses on pressure sales tactics (making money) and not providing a service.
Scam adviser has a trust score of 98%, which is relatively high and doesnât indicate a scam or sham business
Scam adviser may be wrong, but, unlikely.
The business has been around for a number of years. There is limited reviews about them, which is surprising if they are advertising their services internationally and others havenât reported the business as being fraudulent or scam. This seems to suggest the high Scam Adviser score might be right and that their comment that the business âzeefatech.co.uk is very likely not a scam but legit and reliableâ.
Would I pay and use their services, a definite no as there are many similar business which purport to provide support for software, when the support is unlikely to be more than that which can be obtained, usually free, from the software developer. In effect, the $399 paid is a very expensive subscription for McAfee if it was for a home based licence of a couple of devices. Possibly someone being overcharged for something which can be purchased cheaper, assuming the service is no different to that obtained free from the developer.
As the OP was talking about an event that happened a year ago, if a yearly subscription has now expired and renewal advised, this business could well be now defunct. Long expired SSL certs is a sure sign of that.
I wouldnât fork out any money to renew. Just move on.
Red Flag. I would have stopped right there. Heaven knows what they installed. You could have become a spambot⊠and it seems that may have happened, given the later threats about âoffensive materialâ. Pay up or else.
They are aware of the risks. As posted by a number of different members, and also checked using 7 different browsers we have, each one comes up staring the SSL certificates have expired/invalid and the risks associated with proceeding to a site with expired/invalid certificates.
Browsers by default prevent or block direct access to websites with expired/invalid certificates. So much so, I posted screenshots for those members unable to access the website as their browser blocked it due to expired/invalid certificates.
Some browsers allow one, after the notification page, to continue to a website with expired/invalid certificates. Some, such as Google Chrome, clearly state doing such is âunsafeâ.
Any person trying to access a website with expired/invalid certificates knows the risks.
While the discussion about expired/invalid certificates may be interesting, it has little relevance to the OP. The subscription was taken over 12 months ago when the website had current/valid SSL certificates. Discussion assumes that the website was used for purchasing the mentioned subscription, but, calling by phone as a reasonable alternative that could have been used.
If I were buying a subscription from them today, I definitely wouldnât be using their website. However, by phone is still a valid option since there is not indication the business is problematic. I wouldnât be buying from them, as I know their subscription prices are very expensive (assuming it is for domestic use for a couple of devices). If $399 is for a business with numerous devices, they could however be competitive. It is not clear what the subscription was for.
Thanks to everyone. One more question: if as someone has suggested, anti-malware programmes like McAfee and Norton are mostly used to protect companies rather than individuals, is there a benefit to private individuals such as myself from installing protection and of the two, McAfee and Norton, which is best suited to private use?
Also I had no intention of damaging the name of Zeefa Technologies.
The eSafety Commissioner has a good website looking at free verses paid antivirus suites:
It really comes down to your risk profile, operating systems used and if you are willing to pay for additional features.
If you plan to pay for a subscription, shop around as they are often available far cheaper than direct from the software developer (McAfee, Norton etc). Software developers often charge a premium for convenience such as ability for automatic renewals.
That is not quite the intent. Both companies have a very long history of catering to individuals. What is usually for âcompaniesâ are businesses that resell AV products and provide human services to install if necessary and also monitor âthe systemâ being protected so the owners need not do it themselves. Few individuals need that level of âhelpâ.
If you use windows and your device is a PC the free included AV product is usually sufficient. As previously posted Choice has done a review, and PC focused companies like PC Magazine, Tomâs Hardware, and a few others such as Techradar are all good resources. Look for trends in how they report and rank and why, rather than focusing on a single issue/test.
