softtree scam

Following directions from the manual, I ended up at the same scam netgear link. 1st person listened to my issue and said "Let me transfer you to Tech Support". 2nd person said he was tech support for NetGear and would definitely be able to help me but he would need remote access to my computer. I believed I was dealing with NetGear so I allowed it. This guy did get the extender working but then said Wow, you don't have a firewall and look at all the breaches in your network and scrolled through a list so quickly. I told him I do have a firewall and he said that is just on your computer not your network, We went back and forth about this and he tells me OK, but DON'T do any banking or shopping until you get a firewall. He went on and on with the dire warnings and then said I can fix this for you with a lifetime premium firewall for all of your devices no matter what router or modem you use. So I relented and purchased a $299.99 firewall. He did some more stuff scolling through my computer and said I was all set and emailed a document for me to docusign.  The email was from Technical Support but the paperwork was from Soft Tree.  When I asked about that, he said "Oh, we do the tech support for NetGear." and we wrapped up and ended the call.

Then I get an email from my credit card company that a charge from outside of the United States had occurred on my account.  Warning bells went off and I immediately called Symantec/Norton.  I explained what happened and they said they have been getting a rash of calls like this. I gave them remote access so they could see what had been done to my computer. Surprise, Surprise there was NO firewall: not the one I had from Norton nor the one "NetGear" supposedly installed, my Norton virus detection had been disabled, and there was a remote access program left installed.

Norton took down all the information about the company to help them in dealing with these scams, I have called the credit card company, they froze my account and told me to call the police. I talked to the real Tech support for NetGear and she told me to post this on the community board because she couldn't handle it. So there you have my sad story and I hope the right person at NetGear sees this and does something about it.