McAfee Accused Of Sharing Credit Card Info
McAfee is accused of deceiving customers and passing credit card information to a third party.
TechEye reports that it obtained court documents detailing a lawsuit filed against the popular security firm McAfee. The company is accused of tricking consumers into subscribing to a third-party service with misleading pop-ups. McAfee is also accused of supplying the same third party with credit card information without prior authorization.
California-based Melissa Ferrington and Cheryl Schmidt are the two parties behind the lawsuit, and have asked the court to prevent McAfee from continuing with the deception. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages which will be decided later during the trial.
According to the lawsuit, customers are presented with a pop-up once they purchase McAfee's security software online. The pop-up appears to be part of the McAfee brand and purchase process, however the product in question is actually provided by a third party, Arpu Inc. By clicking on the "Try It Now" button, customers are agreeing to pay a $4.95 monthly fee for a non-McAfee product.
"The pop-up, mimicking the look of the other pages on the McAfee site, thanks the customer for purchasing McAfee software, and prompts McAfee's customers to click a red button to 'Try it Now'," the lawsuit states. "The pop-up contains no obvious visual cues or conspicuous text indicating that it is an advertisement for another product, or that clicking on 'Try it Now' will lead not to the delivery of the McAfee product but rather to the purchase of a completely different product. Instead, all the visual cues suggest that 'Try It Now' is a necessary step in downloading the McAfee software."
The lawsuit claims that McAfee receives an "undisclosed fee" for each subscription established with Arpu Inc.
- Google CEO: We Create Enemies
- Kid Steals Credit Card, Blows $1,400 on FarmVille
- Kin OS, Windows Phone 7 May Eventually Merge
- Nokia Nails It with Affordable Smartphones
- Stairs That Automatically Light Up with LEDs
- Best Buy Selling Dual-Display Nook Ereader
- VIDEO: iPad 'Playing' Crysis, Kind Of
- GE's LED Lightbulb Has a 25,000 Hour Rated Life
- iPad Hacked, Proven to be Jailbreakable
- Google Goes for Gaming, Hires Ex-SCEA Employee
- Man Blames Google Street View for Robbery
- Fils-Aime: 3DS Biggest Handheld Release Since '04
- Vivos Building Underground 'Cities' for Doomsday
- MW2's Story Was Bad Says Crysis 2 Writer
- Steve Jobs on Support for iPhone 2G: ''Sorry, No.''
- Gears of War 3 Trailer Released (Female Soldiers!)
- 3DTV is Not for the Pregnant, Young, Old, or Drunk
- Three More MW2 Developers Leave Infinity Ward
- Sony dSLR Concept is on the Nose
whatever happened to the honest businesses. I guess people are way to greedy for that, especially when put into a position where you have the ability to make yourself millions of dollars buy just switching a few things in the system.
In other news people still dont realise that McAfee is total shit.
They just joined Norton on my S*it list with this.
Another reason to add to list of why I use AVG free for my personal computer.
McCrappy never had good antivirus anyways in my opinion.
Norton and McAfee both crap...and we run both at work...don't ask me why we are using two virus scanners. I have no say or control over some of these decisions. It is a nod and smile situation.
I've been using them both for years i dont think they are trust worthy i believe that in 05 and probably now that mcafee were behind the viruses. i've never payed them a dime they dont have my info this does not surprise me. got em both for free from comcast
Avira free edition ftw
How ironic, an internet security suite firm misleading customers.
The last McAfee product I used was VirusScan for Windows 95...
After that they never did anything worth purchasing in my opinion.
McAfee and Norton are both shady as hell, it's more than reasonable to suspect that they write viruses in order to boost their business. Fuck antivirus and insecure OS, Linux with no antivirus is the way to go.
(before any ignorant Windoze fanboys try to say it's because Linux has less marketshare, please do a little research on outward listening ports, Linux' kernel level security, and the anecdotal evidence that there really aren't any antivirus solutions for Linux).
Why anyone would use McCrappy or Norscam products is beyond me.
You're better off putting up with the slowdowns associated with virus infection than installing these utils and having your machine slow down EVEN MORE than an infection would cause.
The new Microsoft Security Essentials does a damn fine job, and without the constant self-justifying popups and annoyances than most AV products constantly bombard you with, and the latest Avast is also a great AV.
Screw McAffee and Norton. Both of these companies have proven themselves to be bad companies who swallow up smaller utility makers and destroy formerly good products, much like Corel do.
Mack-a-FEE!
this is a stupid lawsuit and is simply a case of the consumer failing to read... This just sounds like those ads that come up after you make a purchase at numerous websites (such as buy.com for one) that asks you to try a product and say that they will charge you're card if you do not cancel after the first month. This is not McAfee providing the product, and most definitely there was text indicating this.
How is it a case of "the consumer failing to read"?
The popup box, if we are to take the story at face value, looked identical in style to the symantec page that triggered it.
How is a consumer supposed to differentiate between the two? Is that not the whole point of the suit? That the popup was knowingly designed to trick customers into buying a 3rd party's product for an additional monthly cost.
If the 3rd party had not disguised the popup then nobody would have been confused in the slightest about the extra product.
McCrappy never had good antivirus anyways in my opinion.
No they didn't, they were typically always a step behind to the security capabilities of the market. McAfee is definitely not well known for its security software but from its marketing...The #1 in the included "bloatware" of computer retailers everywhere...
this is a stupid lawsuit and is simply a case of the consumer failing to read... This just sounds like those ads that come up after you make a purchase at numerous websites (such as buy.com for one) that asks you to try a product and say that they will charge you're card if you do not cancel after the first month. This is not McAfee providing the product, and most definitely there was text indicating this.
You call this stupid but yet only back your reason with your opinion...thanks for the bro-telligence...
I have no input seeing how I'm not stupid enough to buy MacAfee so wouldn't know what kind of possible "misleading" popups it displays...
Norton, McAfee etc ... are not "honest buisness" nor have theyever been, It's like a protection cartel (mafia) that constantly scare and find holes in things that would otherwise never have been exploited for their own financial gain.
How anyone would buy things of these companies and feel safe, i will allways wonder...
In short - dont give your money to protectionist mafia's and you wont get ripped off, Simplez!
For consumers, certainly Avira or other free anti-malware products are fine.
Any recommendations for the SMB sector? Business-grade Symantec Endpoint Protection is not too bad (better than consumer-grade Norton), and Trend Micro business products seem to be okay as well.
another reason to pirate
For consumers, certainly Avira or other free anti-malware products are fine.Any recommendations for the SMB sector? Business-grade Symantec Endpoint Protection is not too bad (better than consumer-grade Norton), and Trend Micro business products seem to be okay as well.
I've never tried their business solutions personally but Kaspersky has always seemed trustworthy.
I just noticed a charge on my credit card from McAfee for purchase of their software which I did not order. I've notified my credit card company, and I'll add a whole LOT of publicity if they don't fix this! Pure TRICKERY.