'Windows Defender Subscription' Scam

The 'Windows Defender Subscription' scam tries to take advantage of users through deceptive lure emails. The disseminated email messages claim that recipients have ordered and purchased a one-year subscription for 'Windows Defender Advanced Threat/ Protection Firewall & Network Protection.' Of course, these emails are completely fabricated and the supposed orders are fake. However, the fraudsters rely on users seeing the significant sum of $299.99 that has supposedly been charged to their account and rushing to call the provided phone number to cancel the order.

These are typical scheme elements found in many refund, phishing, or technical support tactics. The phone numbers found in the lure messages are presented as official support, support technicians, free helpline, etc. In reality, it will connect the unsuspecting user to the scheme's operators. It also should be noted that the emails disseminated as part of the 'Windows Defender Subscription' scam still use the old name of the anti-malware component of the Windows OS, which is now called Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

The consequences of calling the con artists' phone number will depend on their particular goals. They may use various false pretenses to convince users into providing them with remote access to the system. They may claim that the transaction is reversible but users must log in to their banking or payment account, potentially compromising their security credentials. The remote access to the device could be exploited as a way to deliver threatening malware payloads being dropped and activated. Victims also may be tricked into sharing private or confidential information through various social engineering tactics.