Spot Geek Squad Scams: Safety Tips 2024?

Geek squad scams are everywhere on the internet. Recently, an increase in the number of such emails has been witnessed. A user even complained that he lost around $100,000 when a scammer gained remote access to his computer.

To keep yourself safe, you must not call the numbers provided in your email. You must not open any links or provide information. 

How to Spot a Geek Squad Scam Email?

1) Check for Spelling Mistakes and Grammatical Errors

You can easily spot a Geek Squad scam email by checking grammatical errors in the email. These emails have various grammatical mistakes and you can easily spot them if you have a keen eye.

You may find misspelled words or you can find lack of punctuation marks in the content. One may also see improper capitalization of terms. However, there are a few scam emails that are very well composed. In such cases, you need to carefully look at other aspects. 

2) Check How the Email is Drafted

Another thing that you need to do is to check how the email is drafted. A huge company generally hires a team responsible for preparing emails. Moreover, they need many rounds of approval before it is sent out.

In case Geek Squad does not have good graphics or its items are misplaced. If you find the general layout is a little off than usual, then that could be a scam email. You can also compare it with emails from other sources. 

3) Verify the Email Address of the Sender

Generally, Geek Squad scam emails are coming from addresses registered on services like Yahoo or Google and there is a very easy way to spot one. Huge organizations such as Best Buy have a written domain name and you will find it at the end of the domain name.

A lot of users have reported that they have received emails from Geek Squad scam emails from an address registered on intuit. 

4) Check the Logo and Graphics

The logo and graphics used in scam emails are usually unclear, cropped, or distorted. These items are generally taken from unofficial sources, which further leads to poor quality. There is a chance that your email has an outdated logo of Geek Squad.

Therefore, you must check the logo by going to the Best Buy official website. This way, you will fall prey to Geek Squad scam emails. 

5) Identify Suspicious Links

If you find that an email is carrying suspicious links, then you must not click on them. They can take you to websites that may ask for your personal information. This will download malware to your computer automatically.

Once you load the malware on the computer of the user, hackers may control your system remotely or steal your data. A lot of people fall victim to this thing and lose a lot of money.

You can preview the link by hovering the cursor over it and determining where it takes you. You can copy the link and paste it in the Word processor to analyze and check if it is legitimate. 

6) Check How the Email Aaddresses You

Companies you have taken services from and purchased products from have your details stored and use it to address you while sending an email to make the interaction look more personal.

An official email from PayPal will mention the name of the user. Otherwise, you will get an email that uses words like "Dear Customer". In some places, you will find some things very informal. This is how you can spot a Geek Squad scam email. 

7) Check Whether the Email Tries to Create an Urgency

Scam emails try to create panic and urgency in the user. They do so because if you can panic the user, they get disturbed and fall prey to the scam. Check whether there is a timeline to contact the customer service experts.

Scammers generally mention the timeline of 24-48 hours as it makes things sound so urgent. So, if you get an email from Geek squad, which works on similar lines, then that's a scam email. 

8) Email will Ask You to Submit Personal Information 

They never directly ask you to enter private information, a few Geek Squad scam emails have links that redirect to pages where you need to enter personal information.

Best Buy has mentioned in this privacy policy that it does not need to submit any private information. Therefore, if any email asks for this, then it is a scam. 

9) Information Provided in the Email does not Add Up 

A lot of users get the Geek Squad scam email on the email address that they never used on the platform. It helped them in identifying that an email was a part of their scam. Therefore, you must look out for such minute information.

One of the users also stated that Debit Card was mentioned in their email. In case you have never used the Geek Squad service or paid any subscription charges earlier, then it's surely a scam. 

10) Search on the Internet for Similar Scams

In case you don't know whether the email was legit or not, then you must try to search on the web. Other people who have received this email in the past may have the screenshot of it even now. In case the template matches with the one you have, then your confusion will get cleared.

If you are still not able to find out whether it's a scam email or not, then you must get in touch with the Geek Squad team using safe channels. However, you need to go to the official page and look for different ways to contact Geek Squad.