The makers of Avast antivirus software are warning users about a new scam involving phone calls from people posing as customer service reps for the company and requesting remote access to user systems. Avast is still investigating the incidents, but a number of users are reporting that the incidents followed experiences with iYogi, the company in India that is handling Avast’s customer support.
A follow-up investigation by KrebsOnSecurity indicates that Avast (among other security companies) is outsourcing its customer support to a third-party firm that appears engineered to do little else but sell expensive and unnecessary support contracts.
Adam Riley, Avast’s third party support manager, wrote in a post on the company’s blog that “during the past week or so, we have received some complaints and it appears that some of our customers are being targeted by a new scam. Luckily only a handful of customers have contacted us regarding this so far, but they report receiving phone calls from ‘Avast customer service’ reps who need to take control of their computer to resolve some issue and who, for a fee, wish to charge them for this privilege.”
I’d first heard about the issue when a reader wrote in to say he’d received complaints from his clients about calls from someone claiming to represent Microsoft and requesting remote access to user computers to help troubleshoot computer problems.
I decided to investigate iYogi myself, and created a fresh installation of Windows XP on my Mac, using the free virtual machine from Virtualbox. I wanted to see whether I, too, would receive follow-up sales pitches. I also wanted to see for myself if there was anything to the claims on Avast’s user forum that iYogi was using support requests to push expensive “maintenance and support” packages.
A call to the support number listed on Avast’s site put me through to a technician named Kishore Chinni; I told Mr. Chinni that I had just installed a copy of Avast, but that I couldn’t be certain it was updating correctly. He asked for a phone number and an email address, and then said the first thing he needed to do was take remote control over my system. He directed me to use Internet Explorer to visit a Web site that requested permission to install two ActiveX add-ons. Those add-ons installed a remote control client called Bomgar Support.
Chinni asked if I had previously installed any antivirus software, and I said I wasn’t sure (I hadn’t). He then fired up the Windows Registry Editor (regedit), poked around some entries, and then opened up the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig) and the Windows Event Viewer. Chinni somberly read aloud a few of the entries in the event viewer marked with yellow exclamation points, saying they were signs that my computer could have a problem. He then switched over to the “services” panel of the system configuration tool and noted that the “manufacturer” listing next to avast! antivirus read “unknown.”
“When it says unknown like that, these are warnings that there could be an infection running on the computer,” Chinni explained. He proceeded to install an iYogi “tune up” tool called PCDiagnostics, which took about 60 seconds to complete a scan of my system. The results showed that my brand new installation of Windows had earned a 73% score, and that it had to detected 17 registry errors and a problem with Windows Update (this was unlikely, as I had already enabled Windows Update and Automatic Updates before I made the support call, and had installed all available security patches). Chinni explained that the “antispyware” warning generated by the PCDiagnostics scan was an indication that a previously installed security software program had not been cleanly removed and was probably causing problems with my computer.
He said another technician could help me with these problems if I wanted. When I inquired whether it would be free, Chinni told me that the company sells support packages for one- to three-year durations, and that the starting price for a support package was $169.99.
I politely declined the offer, but said he still hadn’t helped me resolve the question that prompted my support call: Was Avast updating correctly? Here’s what he told me:
“Avast is going to take time. It’s going to take one week’s time to update. There is a problem on the Avast itself. The reason is there is a problem on the Avast free. If you [garbled] the free, you wait a week for the updates. If you pay for it, it can be done.”
I’ve frequently recommended AVAST! antivirus software to those seeking a free alternative. But I can’t understand why a company like this would risk its reputation by partnering with a support organization whose sales tactics are practically indistinguishable from those employed by peddlers of fake antivirus software or “scareware.” What’s more, iYogi’s implied response to my initial support request was to inform me that Avast’s free software wasn’t working, and that in order to be fully protected against the latest malware threats, I needed to upgrade to the paid version of the software.
Update March 15, 8:36 a.m. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that iYogi also provides official third party support for AVG.
Update, March 15, 10:34 a.m. ET: Citing my investigation, Avast CEO Vincent Steckler just posted a blog entry saying Avast will suspend its support relationship with iYogi.
My 70 year old mother was scammed this week by iYogi. Lying to her about her support contract with Dell to make it appear as if they were part of Dell but wouldn’t fix “software issues” since that wasn’t covered, that she would need to pay for a $169 support contract for the year. The issue was clearly hardware “Disk Read Error” during boot up, but she didn’t know (subsequently ScanDisk found and fixed about 100 bad issues).
iYogi told her that her problems were a conflict of software and that they can fix the problem and “Clean her PC”. Now her PC that has been virus free since we got it over a year ago suddenly has 10 viruses including my favorite:
c:\program files (x86)\iyogi support dock\highest available.exe
Looks like your state’s attorney general needs to be informed of these scams; maybe they will be dealt with. Our state has little humor for such hi-jinks.
Thanks JCitizen,
I have already submitted to Google & Bing that they delist them from their AdCenter / AdSense as scammers, fraud, and installing malware.
To anyone else looking I hope this will make their lives easier:
Google: https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=violation_report&rd=2
Bing: freehelp [at] microsoft [dot] com (found on: http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/forums/p/70237/103135.aspx)
Additionally iYogi appears to have offices in New York and have over 120 complaints against them with the Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/computers-software-and-services/iyogi-inc-in-new-york-ny-99062
We are still discussing other options.
Thank YOU Ross!! Good post!
avast outsourced to iyogi, iyogi outsourced to another in blore for Avast support!!!!
Reported: Iyogi has even has tech support for dell computers
and many more antivirus camapign.
Beware of all this never give remote access to ur ystems folks!!!!! Iyogi might b a gr8 scam on ur Credit cards!!!!!
Hello,Mr. Vishal… One question… Is Mr.Kishore Chinni an employee of your company or not…?. He was actually trying to cheat the Brian,by showing the errors in the event viewer.Most of the old average Americans will thought that ,their computers are not secured and need an immediate service. Then they will go for a subscription…… But here….its Brian ….!! The real Computer tech…. Please reply Mr.Vishal.
Is it me or does it seem like call centers in that region don’t like to do support properly? When I used to use verizon if I had a complaint or got mad they’d hang up immediately on me forcing me to call back. I also recall dealing with clients who were scammed as well. I even got to be on the phone during one and it is more of a pushy sales pitch with lots of misleading baseless statements.
Side note: Anyone noticing that any posts that speak very negatively about this iYogi company are mysteriously negatively flagged so much that they are hidden?
Sorry for this being posted on the wrong page earlier. My browser somehow put me to the other topic when I clicked submit
Tsk, tsk, Avast. Kudos for doing right thing in ending the relationship. However, now you need to get in touch with those people that were scammed by *your* tech support (regardless of it being outsourced) and pay them back whatever fee they paid.
What the hell? I just read the blog post from Avast and it says this ” As such, over the next weeks, we will work with iYogi to determine whether the service can be re-launched.”
Are you kidding me, Avast? You’d even *consider* re-establishing a relationship with a company that uses these techniques?
Harassing old ladies into tears, not a good business model.
Here in Australia, my elderly neighbour called me in tears just the other day because “an indian” had been calling her – three times in one afternoon – and harassing her about her Windows laptop being at risk.. even though it was turned off and in the corner (since she got her new Mac 😉 the person still insisted to her that the criminals could still get in to it and steal her credit card details, so she had to sign up straight away. And kept calling back even when she sensed a scam and said no, go away!
We speak freely, my neighbour and I, but I won’t say here what I told her I thought of them! I sincerely hope it was this mob, and that they get what they deserve.
@DJ2MN
There have been a lot of calls like this in Australia recently. As far as I know they’re just scammers, nothing to do with this story or company as such. However the methods are very similar and equally despicable. Typically the call will be something like:
[Delay after you pick up the phone as a computer at the other ends connects you.] Hello, my name is [Australian sounding but with Indian accent] calling from [authentic sounding company name]. We’re based in [suburb in Australia which everyone knows] and we’re authorised by Microsoft to call. We’re calling because your PC has a problem. You do have a PC don’t you? You’ve been infected with a virus / trojan /spyware / whatever when you visited [list of well-known sites like Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo etc]…
All of which is obvious nonsense if you have any technical knowledge at all. I’ve never got beyond this point because it’s too annoying and I know what’s coming next. It will be something scary designed to make me install something scammy and / or part with credit card details etc. When I’ve accused them of being scammers and breaking the law they’ve continued to insist that they’re genuine and “authorised” and not doing anything wrong etc. All lies.
You can report incidents like this on the Australian Government ScamWatch site, but I think it’s hard for them to do anything because the calls are usually from overseas. The police can’t do anything for the same reason, and also because of the usual Catch-22, which is that until you allow them to scam you no crime has been committed. And in fact if you allow them… possibly still no crime has been comitted, if they don’t misuse your credit card details. Which is a great pity, because I’m sure a lot of people get caught out.
Here are some relevant pages from that site:
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/792165
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/834379
Perhaps you can tell your neighbour about this or show her those pages. It might help her to understand that she’s not the only one, and perhaps help her to resist anything similar in the future or be less upset by it.
Personally when I answer the phone I’m careful to listen for that initial, giveaway delay, which seems to quite reliably indicate an automated caller. If I hear that, usually I hang up immediately before I even speak to anyone. And I don’t seem to get repeat calls if I do that. (But I can do so with little risk of a mistake because I get almost no legitimate calls on that phone, so of course it may be too risky for other people.)
Just in case anybody has experienced similar problems and can tell wether McAfee is the solution or the source to IT- rape.
A few days ago I had to realise that all my “nice sites” – such as PP – were blocked by McAfee. In google they were declared save.
I emailed McAfee support and was advised to go to a certain help site or – if in the US – call a certain number.
On the help site I was finally asked to download some stuff.
Instead I closed the file and called the shop that had sold me McA.’s “security” programme and they gave me the Australian 1800200306 number. Called them and after being redirected to a certain iYogi “help” service, a very helpful guy from o/s checked my pc and said after an hour roaming: yes, there is a problem: MacAfee has installed an upgrade on your pc that falsely blocks some sites. there are also 10.279 bugs in your pc (I heard that before from some idiotic physhermen!) . We can help you and that would be (very soft) “one” (normal voice) “eighty-nine dollars”. Ia sked him why should I pay 89 dollars to have a problem fixed that was caused by Mac Affe? Blablabla. Finally I understood the constantly mumbled “one” and told him “I shall think about it”. Called the shop again, the technician was gobsmacked and went with me through the steps and 5 minutes (!) later after having removed the faulty update all my sites were accessible again.
Is McA protection or predator?
I call it McCr@ppy! It has got to be one of the worst AVs on the market! All it does is cause me support nightmares for my clients. I finally ended up telling them, it is either I uninstall it or I hit the road!
You guys do not get the point.
Iyogi is a company in India. The management tortures the Team Leaders for revenue and the Team Leaders torture the call taking agents for revenue, otherwise agents would lose their jobs. So, the poor agent is instructed to con people and make sales, by hook or by crook. Companies that do this like Iyogi, go down the drain.
Eng? Don’t they have QA(Quality Analysts) that assess each call that was made? Nothing wrong with getting revenues but QUALITY should be a MAJOR metric for these agents. I’ve nothing against outsourcing Tech-Support jobs to India(as I have Injun heritage) nor to any other countries but upselling(Or in this case, HARD-CORE selling) should just be optional for the agent. Remember, ’tis Technical Support not outbound Sales is what their job is…
Well said ChennaiBrain…… that’s 100% true. The call taking agents are helpless. ” Do your job ” whats making them to pitch for the sales… No one wants to risk their jobs….
so anything is ok as long as you’re `just doing your job` ?
Of course, if that means you’ll lose your job if you won’t comply. Especially if you are in a 3rd world country and earning money is as hard as going through a rat’s @$$.
It’s the management who should be put to question here..
business is outsourced to India because most of the foreign people are dumb wen it come to computers.wen it come to computers Indians are great Indians and any business outsourced to India is cheap and profitable for company.we americans have to think that.
Based on the basic grammatical errors in your message, I’m dubious as to your post.
It’s obvious you are not American or even a native English speaker. Please put your shilling in a place decency won’t allow me to say.
For the record, Bomgar is a legitimate support appliance with a nice cross platform remote control capability. We’ve used them for years to help our clients with problems, and to train new clients with demonstrations. People reading this article should not associate them with iYogi’s misdeeds. They just happen to be the tool iYogi used to remote control. (No, I don’t work for Bomgar, but I do like their product)
I don’t know Bomgar, but it’s very common for support scammers to persuade their victims to install free versions of legitimate remote access tools to give them access. Of course, they also install free versions of various other utilities. And, to all intents and purposes, charge for them.
Is this for real or just a disgruntled employee?
“FRAUD SALES TECHNIQUES & PRACTICES
i like to bring the peoples attention towards FRAUD SALES TECHNIQUES & PRACTICES going on in IYOGI TECHNICAL SERVICES”
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/fraud-sales-techniques-amp-practices-iyogi-technical-services-c465992.html
for all foreigners u have an issue with computer, Call will be answered by an Indian 😉
Not true buddy… There are outsourced tech-support in Asia such as Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines, etc. As well as South America and they are all good(If not excellent). It just so happens that sometimes(If not often) the outsourcing companies tend to value the revenue more instead of the QUALITY of the support.
I mean it’s like a domino effect. One experiences good tech-support and what does that person do? He spreads the word and and more will sign up for that kind of support. In that way, the company gets more subscribers/customers thus their revenue raises…
We i had been using the iYogi Technical Services for several years and i do not agree to the fact that its been called as a spam.
Which Technical Support company provides unlimited technical support and which support saves time of the customer using the next generation remote access technology
Huh? Most 3rd party paid-for-support technical services whether onshore or offshore already uses “latest generation remote access technology” nowadays.
We’re talking about how iYogi scams people here, not how they provide “excellent”, time-saving unlimited support.
Question is: how can you trust someone asking full access with a remote control tool? What guarantee we have that he won’t download our passwords and personal infos from our PCs, in the background without been seen?
Even big name tools like WebEx and Teamviewer, what assurances give to the end users?
WebEx is Java based, if I don’t go wrong, so some kind of sandboxing may be in place, but what about native code tools?
Just to clear any potential misunderstanding: I’m not questioning WebEx or Teamviewer integrity as a company, but the potential of some third party abuse of these tools.
Pal, the only abuse that can happen is if you’ve got porn or explicit pictures on your PC and that you’ll show them to the agent doing remote-access. These programs are downloaded off of their respective sites(take Teamviewer for example) so you know the agent don’t have anything piggybacked on it. Well if you tell the agent your username and password for Facebook or your Creditcard number and CVN then definitely you’d be in big trouble!
Just shows you haven’t used these programs and services yet…
It’s not even necessary to piggyback something. It’s possible to download directly from the original client, with some help from an unsuspecting and low skilled user, as the profile of an online support caller may suggest.
I’ve made some tests here: http://pleasedonttouchthescreen.blogspot.it/2012/03/who-controls-remote-control.html
Teamviewer(and most of the remote access programs) have a tool for File Transfer. When one allows remote access, the interface with that tool is not present. The only one that have it is the remote controlling agent, so definitely the agent won’t be able to tell the host(PC owner) to “transfer this file to me or this program, etc.”..
And also, prior to accepting remote access, the program will remind the host user to close all personal folders/documents so the remote helper will have no knowledge of such folders/documents and where in your drive have you stored them.
Do you leave the room when you’re doing remote session with someone you don’t personally know? I don’t. These programs have options that let the host pause the screen sharing session. So if you are going to the johns or make a cup of joe then you can tell the agent that you’re pausing the session for a while, he or she’s inclined to wait.
Security basics, sir…
I am an existing employee of iYogi and YES these kind of sale practices are going on for a long time. When I joined this company I liked the kind of tech support they providing, I am not in sales process but the sales pressure in my process makes me think that YES I AM IN A SALES PROCESS. I am planning to resign ASAP and will give more details afterword.
Whom to blame?
Agents/ Executives: No, as they are just following their supervisors.
Supervisors: No, as they are just following their Asst Managers.
Asst Managers: May be, as they pass on the sales targets to the supervisors.
Senior Mangers: A BIG YES, as they are kind of process heads, they appreciate the executives cracking more sales. They will do anything to protect an executive with high sales, they will promote him, they will give him leaves whenever required…
AVP: Yes, as they have share in revenue.
CEO: Yes, they are hungry for more $$$.
I agree….. I’m also an employee of iYogi
Yes i too agree with you william, i am an existing employee of iYogi and believe me guys the company would have done good if the big bosses reduce their hunger for revenue $$$, moreover this company sacks its employee after their use, did anyone tried to know what happened to the guy who was working on Mr. Brian’s computer….agents are not to be blamed …they don’t enjoy cheating the customer…its the higher authorities in iYogi …who utilize the agents for everything and if they are not able to meet the sales metric they loose their job….its very sad
That’s no longer new in these type of businesses. All tech-support/customer-service providers include upselling in the agents’ performance metrics, sometimes the management even urge these agents to do Hard-Core selling for revenues to increase.
However, what Mr. Krebs is tackling here is the way they do it.
They hostage a solution, therefore scaring the customer with things like “if you don’t sign up for this or you don’t pay additional fee for a software then these problems will remain in your computer” and that kind of BS.
Nothing different from scareware/rogue anti-viruses. It does a drive-by download/installation to your computer, tells you your system is compromised so you have to go to this website, pay $50 dollars and the support-team(Bots?) from the website will clean it up for you.
Crap, all you need to do is just remove the rogue program thru the Add/Remove Programs feature of your OS…
So you’re saying that the brains behind these unethical practices for revenue boosts are actually from the managerial levels? If this is true then they should be reported to the authorities!
They’re no different from Cyber Criminals devising different ways to spread malware that steal personal and financial info as well as produce Botnets for the adclick scams…
The base line is: I like the tech support provided by the iYogi but, I hate the unethical sales practices.
Unethical sales practices are very common nowadays in iYogi, with sales targets revised every month for same performance incentives.
The executive cracking more sales (by any means) get more benefits..
I work there too…. they deal with 50,000+ calls a day. Some people are good….. some people are scum…… obviously the later are a minority otherwise this isn’t the first time you would have heard about iYogi in the last 5 yrs.
… and trust me tech support for less than 50 cents a day? I gift this stuff to all elderly relatives who call me non stop to fix their computers.
Hi…, Even i was an employee of iYogi bangalore, This company cheats people like hell. Even i was told i was hired for tech support, But i was totally into sales. Every call we will lie to customers, scare them and make them to buy a subscription of $169.99 or more. I hate the job and hence quit this organisation with in few months after joined. I know kishore chinni, Cannot blame him… no mistake with him. He did that because its how been thought by the company. Please dont get fooled by iYogi. Its fraud. Thank god i am out of a organaisation like this.
Brian you rock buddy…, You are a real techie !!
Two thumbs up! And by-the-by I am certainly not surprised that the genius of Vince Steckler is the driving force behind this deal! If I were him I would be frothing over an untapped install base of millions, but alas feeding at the proverbial trough was just too much to resist. Yes, I do insinuate this deal was not purely altruistic in nature, but likely even he – an old time master of the subversive – was surprised at how aggressively iYogi pursued his client base. If I had a direct hand in dismantling this apparition, then yippee!
I am an existing Iyogi Customer. I too have called and got the best support ever. Lets not presume on the ethics of Iyogi. I have called many times and issues as well as questions were answered. They are sitting there to give support instantly to people who call for help.
Let’s say you got a good experience with iYogi’s technical support but I bet they tried selling you something(service upgrade maybe?) every time you make a call to them.
The people here are not bashing iYogi because of lame services but because of the way they push a sale to customers. Remember, Brian Krebs called in because of Avast(free) not updating correctly and what did he get? Scareware reporting the computer is problematic due to “registry errors” and problems with Windows update!(Take note, this is a new installation of Windows through Virtualbox on a Mac) They tried selling him support packages to have these issues fixed…
Also, quoting mr. Krebs on what the agent told him:
“Avast is going to take time. It’s going to take one week’s time to update. THERE IS A PROBLEM ON THE AVAST ITSELF. The reason is there is a problem on the Avast free. If you [garbled] the free, you wait a week for the updates. If you pay for it, it can be done.”
Wow! Now what does that tell you?
I had an installation of AVAST free on a laptop of mine and on my fathers PC. AVAST wasn’t *ever* able to update it’s virus list. Not once. I tried many, many, many times to make it update its data from AVAST’s servers and it *never* *ever* worked once. Every single time it got a timeout. So finally AVAST free was really of no use at all and I deinstalled it on both machines.
That was a few years ago. I do not know if they have meanwhile put more servers in place to serve their “free” customer base, so that can actually handle their client’s update load.
So when iYogi’s support person said that:
“Avast is going to take time. It’s going to take one week’s time to update. There is a problem on the Avast itself. The reason is there is a problem on the Avast free. If you [garbled] the free, you wait a week for the updates. If you pay for it, it can be done.”
… then that is quite precisely the reality as I have experienced it. Actually my AVAST took *forever* to update itself and not just “one week”. I don’t know whether a paid AVAST would have access to better update servers. I think I hazily remember reading something in that sense from AVAST.
So I’d say it was (or still is?) the same tactics from AVAST as it apparently is now from iYogi. Same judgement for AVAST as for iYogi? YMMV.
*t
You have a point there…
But still, isn’t AVAST paying iYogi for support of their products whether premium or “freemium”?
The tech should have fully explained and elaborated on what the “problem” is with the Avast free, not just telling Brian Krebs “THERE IS A PROBLEM ON THE AVAST ITSELF. The reason is there is a problem on the Avast free”…
If another person was in Brian’s shoes during that time and he got a clear explanation on what might be causing the issue then he might have upgraded to the licensed version right away.
It’s like an auto mechanic telling you to have an engine overhaul without giving you any reason what for.
If you can’t update avast’s definitions then the problem is on your end, not on theirs. It has always worked well and it’s a very good anti-virus program. For free protection, it’s very hard to beat.
I’ve been using it for a few years now and never had a problem.
Hello Users,
I had worked with iyogi for a Year, and I am a Part of the Antivirus and Antispyware Team as an Tecnician,
The Avast Process started in iyogi and i had worked for it for a long time,
Yes I agreed with the People that they will force them to get their support for 169$ for a year Even they fool the Avast team that they will provide the free support for their product and told people to buy their Support.
What they guys were doing is pitching sale to all the call they received from the avast customers by showing them fake errors, for this all the management is responsible not the Agents and Technicians
Though Being a part of iyogi, I never try to do anything like that
My Incentives are zero every months( that does not matter for me as i don’t want to mislead people)
Finally i resign from the company and feel free now.
Moral: Don’t get prayed by the iyogi as they people are just to generate money.
Soon I am planning to open up a company that provide a legitimate support to the customers.
Hope you guys will join my team
I am not giving up the name here as i am not here to Advertise but to show that not all the people of India are of iyogi kind …
Hi Mr/Ms Unknown,
INTRODUCTION:
Even I was a part of iYogi at once. I was with a company called E4E to whom iYogi outsourced there business.
I was FTL/SME at that time.
I definitely agree that it is management and not the agents alone, but even agents have got the hang of it as they get incentives for every sale they make, not much though.
Even i never had any incentives for the same reason and have quit the job in November – 2011 for some similar reasons.
AS YOU SAID THAT YOU ARE PLANNING TO OPEN A COMPANY OF YOUR OWN I THOUGHT IF I CAN BE PART OF IT BUT NOT AS A TSO/TSR/ASSOCIATE.
WHAT I MEANT IS WE CAN OPEN IT WITH JOINT EFFORTS WHERE THERE IS 100% TRANSPARENCY AND GENUINE SUPPORT PROVIDED.
Please feel free to revert if you like the plan.
AkshayBansal@Live(DoT)com
Correction:
Its not 2011 but 2010 (Quit E4e in November 2010)
Great thinking!!! So I suppose this is going to legitimate support for FREE. Please share details so that all can avail this free support.
Buyers of Avast information for you guys,Avast is playing a game infact the CEO is also lying to all his customers.They are still doing same business with IYOGI and charging customers for nothing just by changing their location from DLF Gurgaon India Centre to Noida UP center in India.You guys need to file a complaint againt Iyogi in India as it is doing the same for mcafee,PCSS,Stopzilla,Paretologic,bitdefender,dell,Avast.
it hardly matters from where they are running their business….n u are a big FAKE
These kind of issues should be dealt with for sure, I am sure that Mr Brian has a track record of exposing online malpractices, but the way he handled this situation was obviously not right as it ended up in
1) millions of Avast customers being denied free phone support
2) a good number of educated young people losing their jobs
Avast has a third party manager to whom the issue could be escalated, Iyogi has a lot of managers to whom the issue could have been escalated, Instead a direct scoop like this was not ideal
So, Ashley, it’s *my* fault that this happened? “The way I handled this situation was not right?” What would you have done differently? Just forgotten about the whole thing? Never have written the story in the first place? I merely reported what my experience was. The rest was out of my hands.