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Forum Discussion
Help! Is this a scam?
I just spetn 50 minutes with a 'netgear technician' having followed the setup advice in the instruction pamphlet that came with my range extender to visit my wifi ext.net. He convinced me to let him have access to my PC while he did the troubleshooting, all appeared legit until he flagged up that my internet was being used by a host of external users that he explained have gained access to our network robably through phishing emails and so on. He directed my to the site mywifiextus.net - is this a bogus site?
6 Replies
Billozero wrote:
I just spetn 50 minutes with a 'netgear technician' ...
How did you contact this Netgear technician?
If you called a number that you found with a web search, that almost certainly had nothing to do with Netgear.
Netgear itself does not provide paid for support. It farms that out to GearHead Technical Support.
Web searches can deliver results that scream "Netgear support" at the top but that turn out to be anything but. Using them can be dangerous, for your network and your bank balance.
New buyers can initiate a support call through MyNetgear.
If you login to mynetgear, can you see your device there?
If so, that is where to ask for support.
If you aren't eligible for free support, this place costs nothing.
Thanks for your replies. In the pamhlet that came with the product, there were setup instructions directing me to a website for assistance, where their online chat support initiated a call to me from them. - it wasn't GearHead, I think I would have remembered that name.
Billozero wrote:
Thanks for your replies. In the pamhlet that came with the product, there were setup instructions directing me to a website for assistance
We don't know which Netgear extender you are trying to set up, but the usual "pamphlet" in the box is the "Quick Start" guide. (Also available as a PDF download from the support section of this place, with embedded clickable links to reduce the risk of being led astray.)
The links in the guide either point at something like www.routerlogin.net for routers or www.mywifiext.net for extenders, which are ways into the browser graphical user interface that you use to set up the device.
Other links in the guide are to bits of netgear.com.
The puzzle is how you ended up with someone seeking access to your PC. Netgear isn't likely to want that just for setup. So I reckon you were wise to ask if this was a bogus site. Let's hope they didn't do any permanent damage.
I used this same website last to verify this same website last month. They just guided me with the setup steps on chat. I even asked him to take remote aswell but they denied. Seems ok to me.
