Scam alertGlobal
“Your Subscription Auto-Renewed” — the Fake-Invoice Refund Scam
Posted 30 Aug 2026
A convincing invoice lands by email or text: your antivirus, cloud storage, or a subscription (Norton, McAfee, “Geek Squad”, PayPal) has just auto-renewed for a hefty amount — often a few hundred dollars or thousands of rupees. Helpfully, there’s a phone number to “cancel” or “claim a refund.”
You never bought it, so you call to sort it out — and that’s the whole trap. The “support agent” offers a refund, then asks you to install a screen-share app or log into your bank so they can “process” it, “accidentally” overpays you, and pressures you to send the difference back. Your account gets drained instead.
What to Do
- Don’t call the number in an unexpected invoice — that number is the trick.
- Check for a real charge only in your actual bank app or the vendor’s official site, typed in yourself.
- No genuine refund ever needs you to install screen-share software or log into your bank on a call.
- If you’re pushed to “return an overpayment,” stop — the original refund was fake.