EX 3700 Extender - installed 7/19/18 and was told by tech to purchase Eqosoft firewall

Question

I installed the EX3700 about 18 months ago (July 2018) and just read a post about a Possible Firewall Fraud, N300 Extender that was posted 12/11/2017 by "TheColonel" about a scam where a Netgear tech entered his PC to fix an issue during install and recommended theEqosoft firewall that was critical and had to be paid with paypal. I believe that I fell for this scam back then and although I had some doubts, I paid it, because I had so many issues trying to get this extender installed. It has a crss.exe trojan horse and would not install. After contacting an Netgear tech that spent 30 to 40minutes on my PC, it finally worked and he sold me on the firewall. I know it sound stupid, but I thought what he said made sense and I had previous problems with malware, etc. so just wanted extra protection,etc. I really thought I was dealing with an employee of Netgear, since I followed the Netgear support link. At any rate, that was about 18 months ago and today I was working through deleting some of my bookmarks and saw the Equosoft bookmark which I had not looked at since 2018 and saw that the website is not working, so it looks like the scammers have moved on.

The question I have for the community is:

1. I assume it is possible that he placed something in my PC allowing him a back door, so can I change my router's password that came with the system. It is a 17 digit password that is on the serial number label of the equipment. If I can change it, then I assume this guy could not get back in.

2. Any other ideas on changes I can make? To my knowledge everything has been working since the install 18 months ago, but I feel that I need to get rid of Netgear equipment or find a way to secure / change passwords, etc.

Thanks,

esp_jones

Christian_R · Answer

Hi esp_jones,&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Welcome to the community!&nbsp;

1. If you log into your router's admin page you can view the WiFi settings and change the password.&nbsp;

2. We recommend that you use strong passwords and for future reference, please use the link below to get in contact with our Support Team.

&nbsp;

https://www.netgear.com/support/default.aspx
&nbsp;

Christian&nbsp;

immctagg · Answer

I had a similar experience on 31 March 2020. It took an hour for the whole scam to take place. Fortunately, I suspected that something was wrong and did not fall for the scam of purchasing the firewall. I have been feeling sick ever since. It is hard to know what was taking place while he had direct access to my computer. I have checked with Malwarebytes and other virus scanning software but am still scepticle about whether or not some trojan or other malware may have been installed during the session.

I note that this seems to have been going on for quite sometime. I note that there is a message with the product about only using NETGEAR support resources. Perhaps this needs to be more prominently displayed for those of us who tend to search online for support when required. Yes, I know that NETGEAR cannot be responsible for my lack of caution. However, the problem seems to be an ongoing one.

The whole experience was very polished and seemed to be the real deal, hence the tendency to move ahead with the online assistance from this fake site.

Wehosammo · Answer

Is Eqosoft a scam that was handed to me directly through the netgear site??? I totally got suckered in to this thing cuz I'm stressed out over the quarantine. YOUR tech guy from your site address accessed my computer! Im not sure how comprised my entire network is now! I need an answer on how to resolve this asap.

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EX 3700 Extender - installed 7/19/18 and was told by tech to purchase Eqosoft firewall

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