At a Glance
If you’re like me, you get loads of emails every day. Unfortunately, a good amount of those emails are from scammers trying to trick me. While I would venture to say that most of my readers are familiar with the “traditional” scams, like the ever-popular “Nigerian Prince” scam, you may not know about another scam, one that uses a well-known company to lull victims into a sense of false security.
The Best Buy Geek Squad email scam takes advantage of the fact that many users think an email is safe if it carries recognizable logos and other branding from a well-known company. In this article, I explain how the Geek Squad scam works, why they target us, how to avoid falling for this scam (and others), and how to prevent these types of emails from showing up in your mailbox in the future.
What is the Geek Squad Scam?
The Geek Squad scam is so simple, really. You’ll receive a message (usually an email but it could be a text message or a pop-up on a website) telling you that you have been billed a large amount of money for a purchase that you have not actually made. The scammers conveniently include an email or website link, or a phone number to dispute the charge. The scammers are also kind enough to include an invoice in the form of a PDF (which could infect your PC or other device with malware).
Unfortunately, all of the links, phone numbers, and attachments the scammers provide will either put you in contact with the bad actor behind the scam, install malware, or direct you to a phishing site to steal as much personal and financial information from you as they can. The FBI says that in 2022, more than 300,000 people fell victim to phishing in the US alone, costing each victim an average loss of nearly $200.
Please be aware that while this article will focus on the Geek Squad scam, you should be aware that Best Buy isn’t the only well-known company that scammers are claiming to be from. Scammers also pose as representatives of PayPal, Adobe, Amazon, McAfee, and other companies in an attempt to scam you.
How Can I Spot a Fake Order Email?
First, take things slow. Don’t get frantic over a message claiming you have been billed for hundreds of dollars. Messages like those used in the Geek Squad scam depend on you freaking out and taking action quickly before you have time to consider whether or not the invoice is legitimate.
Check the email address, was it sent from an email address that is actually used by the company in question? Look closely, the email address may look similar to a legitimate email address but it has some differences if you look closely. For example, if the genuine email address the company uses is “[email protected],” the email address the email was sent may be “[email protected].”
You may also see that the email was sent from an address like “[email protected].” Big companies like Best Buy do not use free Gmail email addresses. Trust me on this one.
Also, I’ve seen several scam emails that are supposedly being sent just to me but that have my email address listed with 60 other targeted email addresses. Now, why would Geek Squad be sending my invoice to 60 other people? Hmmmm…
In the email you’ve been sent, look for a link in the body of the email. Hover your mouse pointer over the link if you’re on a computer or long-press the link on your mobile device to inspect the URL. Check for an official domain name in the address (something like https://www.geeksquad.com).
Look at the URL closely. Scammers will sometimes use a subdomain, making it harder to spot. An evil subdomain URL would look something like this: https://geeksquad.badactor.com. Subdomains can be tough to spot, especially on mobile devices, so be careful when examining the URL.
Carefully examine the body of the message. Does it address you by name? Many times, scam emails will refer to you by “Customer,” whereas legitimate emails from a well-known company will use the name you provided when signing up for emails or other types of communications.
Look for other giveaways, like maybe they’re claiming to charge you for a service that isn’t available in your country. If they’re saying you owe an amount in Euros when you live in the U.S. that’s a big red flag. Besides, Geek Squad services are not available in all countries or it’s called by another name in some countries.
Also, look for spelling and grammar errors in the body of the message. Scam emails often contain these types of errors. They’ll also contain vague sentences designed to spur you into action, such as “URGENT ACTION REQUIRED” or “LAST NOTICE!” “Your account is on hold!” is another popular one.
There are at least two popular variants of the Geek Squad email. One claims you urgently need to update your payment information, while the other claims there was a payment issue for a service the Geek Squad supposedly performed for you.
If you receive one of these emails and you still can’t determine if the email is genuine or from a scammer, contact Geek Squad. However, you should only contact them using the contact information on the genuine Geek Squad website. Forward the scam email to Geek Squad at [email protected]. This alerts them to the scam, allowing them to warn others.
Last but not least, check your bank accounts and credit card accounts to confirm that no transactions have been taken from your accounts.
What Can I Do to Stop Getting Scam Emails?
Unfortunately, you’ll never be able to completely stop scam emails. However, you can reduce the number of scam emails you’ll see in your mailbox.
First of all, never ever reply to scammers. All that does is let them know that your email address is active, so they’ll send more spam your way and sell the email address to other scammers.
Block the sender’s email address and report them for phishing. The exact steps to do this depend on the email provider you use. Here are the methods for four top email providers:
- Gmail: While reading the email, click the three dots beside the reply button and then click Block “name”.
- iCloud: Tap the flag icon, then hit Block Sender. Click the arrow icon and choose Move to Junk.
- Outlook: Click Report, then Phishing. Hit the three dots on the right and select Block.
- ProtonMail: Click the arrow in the top-left and choose Report phishing. Next, click the sender’s name and select Block messages from this sender.
Sadly, preventing these emails from arriving is more involved than just blocking and reporting these scammers.
As an additional preventive measure, look in your email’s settings, you should be able to block all emails containing a specific phrase. By setting it up to block emails with common lines such as “Dear customer” or “Geek Squad” and other phrases used in the emails, you can prevent these emails from showing up in your inbox. However, you should keep in mind that this will also prevent any legitimate messages including these phrases from being delivered to your inbox.
You may also want to remove your email address(es) from your social media profiles and any websites you are connected to. Scammers will often harvest email addresses from these sources, so removing them may help reduce the number of scam emails you’ll see in your inbox.
You will also want to consider getting your contact information removed from people search sites. People search sites sell email information to anyone willing to pay for it, so if your info isn’t on the site, it won’t be available to share. It also won’t be included in any data breaches that might happen. While you can manually have your personal information removed from people search sites, there are hundreds of these sites. I strongly recommend using a tool like Incogni, which will do all of the grunt work of getting your info removed from people search sites for a small fee.
I’ve Been Tricked by a Scam Email, What Should I Do?
First of all, don’t freak out. Take a deep breath, grab a nice cup of tea, and let’s take a look at what you can do about it. While it’s certainly embarrassing to admit you’ve been scammed, it can happen to the best of us.
The first thing to do is to contact your bank or credit card company and let them know what has happened. Financial firms have entire departments dedicated to fighting financial fraud. This will likely result in an investigation into the scammer’s accounts, possibly freezing their funds. They can also freeze your accounts, preventing scammers from stealing any more of your hard-earned money. You may also be able to get the charges reversed, allowing you to recover your funds.
Also, if you are in contact with the scammers DO NOT do anything they tell you to! Block the number you have called.
Also, if you see a scam, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
The next thing to do is to perform a bit of cleanup on your computer or device.
If you downloaded a file or opened an attachment from the scam emails, you should invest in a top-notch antivirus and anti-malware app. Do a deep scan of your hard drive and system using these apps to ferret out any viruses or malware that may be infecting your system.
Now you need to change the passwords of your affected accounts. If you were enticed to log into a fake Best Buy Geek Squad site, change the password. If you were fooled by a fake Amazon site, change your Amazon password. Also, check to make sure that you haven’t reused the password on any other sites. Infact, while you’re doing that, make sure you don’t reuse passwords on any site. It’ll take a while, but it’ll be worth it.
I strongly recommend using a password manager to create unique and strong passwords for your accounts. Plus, many password managers will scan your password collection and inform you of reused passwords.
If the scammer has already accessed and hijacked your account, you’ll also need to contact support for the site to take back control of your account. Once you’ve taken back your account, enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for the account. 2FA requires a second form of authentication before allowing you to access an account. This is usually a PIN code sent to your text messages or email, or a code generated by a third-party authentication app, like Google Authenticator. This will prevent anyone that has the password account from logging in without your knowledge, since they will not have access to the PIN.
In Closing
Scammers are always looking for ways to separate us from our money as well as our personal and financial information. Don’t make it easy for them, stay alert for email scams like we’ve discussed here. And remember, even if you fall for one of these scams, the world hasn’t ended. Stay safe my friends!
