Virus alert for Macs issued by a small town computer seller in Victoria

[scruff]

Hi all,

A friend of my family recently bought a new iMac. A few days later she received this letter from the company where she purchased it :-

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/...91c8edf6_o.jpg

Has anyone heard of this 'disturbing number' of infections of Macs before? I asked her to query the company, and whether it was a bootcamp virus. They said no, it is a Mac virus. They said that the name was 'xpantivirus' (which popped up a number of alerts for me, given the 'xp' in the name). I did a google search, and only found items relating to windows. She doesn't use bootcamp, or Windows in any form.

Has anyone else seen this? This company was a Windows shop before it became a Mac reseller, and from what I can gather they have no clue about Macs at all. If it is a Windows virus (which it is by all accounts), why would they be recommending 'Norton AntiVirus for Mac' at $70 AUD?

Cheers -- Darren.

[Jaffa]

Apple - Support - Discussions - xpantivirus ...

It's just something that takes control of your current browser session. Nothing to be worried about as far as I can see.

That reseller seems to have either sent an uninformed letter or is trying to make money from its customers via a false claim.

[tcn33]

or is trying to make money from its customers via a false claim.

This. It's a blatant attempt to cash in on the uninformed.

[Wally]

This. It's a blatant attempt to cash in on the uninformed.

Yes and Norton??.. bahahaha

[Jaffa]

This. It's a blatant attempt to cash in on the uninformed.

LOL. That is the most probable option, but I was being nice on my Sunday morning and giving them the benefit of the doubt :P

[supermariobothers]

Are you able to name the store? That's bullshit.

[tcn33]

Not hard to work out - there aren't many Apple resellers in Leongatha. Though it's worth pointing out that the chain in question is a series of franchises, so the Leongatha branch's behaviour shouldn't reflect on other locations.

[scruff]

Darn, I missed the town name in the text of the letter. I thought I'd got them all.

I was hoping to give the store a bit of shadow of a doubt, given that they are a new Apple licensee. However the urgency of this letter and the (almost) demand for the person to bring their computer in to install Nortons (for Mac, nonetheless which wouldn't have caught the virus if the person was running bootcamp or Fusion/Parallels) for $70 was pretty harsh.

[Remy]

If I were you, I'd complain to Apple about this. Any store with an Authorised Reseller logo that sends out rubbish like that ought to be revoked of their licence.

[TheKeddi]

Yeah, people trying to scam money form customers with this crap should have their Apple license taken from them immediately. If they can't research this stuff before sending URGENT letters about viruses then they shouldn't be anywhere near computers.

[canonafficionado]

Using FUD to sell stuff is common but so often baseless.

[Wally]

Wait there's an Apple Reseller in Leongatha?

Damn

[ajbeardy]

Yes it's unbelievable. I grew up in Leongatha and cannot believe it has made it to a thread on Mac Talk. I will dispatch a family member tomorrow to give them a talking to.

[Linux_insidev2]

Yes it's unbelievable. I grew up in Leongatha and cannot believe it has made it to a thread on Mac Talk. I will dispatch a family member tomorrow to give them a talking to.

Good work Captain Hero!

[Brains]

Seriously, Leading Edge Computers (sorry muchacho, that logo stands out like a sore thumb) have a long standing reputation for cluelessness. Since they started with their franchise-you-buy-when-you're-not-buying-a-franchise idea (it'd be the only way LE would end up in Leongatha, an existing business joined LEG), the sales for its parent group have gone up, but so has the overall level of cluelessness.

Perhaps I should send a copy of your letter to my contact in Apple .au, she'd love to know about this

[AfterBurner_1]

And I'll bet you they wouldn't be surprised.

[Donnie Darko]

What a money grabbing scam. Write an email to Apple AU, get their frigging licence revoked.

[Geoff3DMN]

Write an email to Apple AU, get their frigging licence revoked.

All that will accomplish is reduce the existing already low service levels in Leongatha from low to zero.

Unlike the city country towns seldom have even a single reseller, you'd just be punishing local Apple users by forcing them to travel 2 hours to the city for service issues.

[glacierdave]

Seriously, Leading Edge Computers (sorry muchacho, that logo stands out like a sore thumb) have a long standing reputation for cluelessness. Since they started with their franchise-you-buy-when-you're-not-buying-a-franchise idea (it'd be the only way LE would end up in Leongatha, an existing business joined LEG), the sales for its parent group have gone up, but so has the overall level of cluelessness.

Perhaps I should send a copy of your letter to my contact in Apple .au, she'd love to know about this

Like every group, there's going to be different experiences and skills.

Painting the entire group with one brush on the basis of one incident isn't entirely accurate (or fair).

Within the group there are skilled and professional operators.

I'm not defending the store in question and I wouldn't have used marketing like this myself but that doesn't warrant labeling the group in any particular way.

You, me, any random person, can be guilty of exercising poor judgment.

FWIW, I own a computer business that's a member of Leading Edge and have done for the last ten years. I don't consider myself clueless.

[icant]

They said that the name was 'xpantivirus' (which popped up a number of alerts for me, given the 'xp' in the name)

Really? The word that popped up for me was panti.