McAfee: unauthorized charge
First check whether the "charge" is real. Fake McAfee renewal invoices are common; call no number in the message.
What does this mean?
Grade C (use with care: check the source of each value before relying on it). 61% of 23 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites; 4 value(s) were read from a search snippet or an archive copy.
Collect
- card or bank statement
- the suspicious email
- McAfee order number if the charge is real
Steps
Do not call any number or click any link in the email or invoice. Check your card or bank statement, and sign in to McAfee by typing mcafee.com into the browser.
If there is no matching charge, the message is a scam. Report it to McAfee and to the FTC, and delete it.
If there is a real McAfee charge you did not expect, call McAfee and ask for a refund.
If you gave a caller remote access, card details or money, contact your bank or card issuer at once.
Facts you can cite
- Policy
The FTC says: "If you get a message about a tech support subscription renewal and you think it's real, contact the company directly" using contact details you know are real, and check your statements for an unauthorized transaction.
Source: consumer.ftc.gov, verified 2026-10-13
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
4 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must obtain "a consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
A post-transaction third-party seller may not charge a consumer for an online sale unless it discloses the material terms and gets express informed consent, including the consumer's full account number, before charging. An initial merchant may not pass a customer's account number or other billing information to such a seller.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
Card dispute for charges after a cancellation.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).
Watch out
- www.mcafee.com refused automated fetches on 2026-10-13, so McAfee's refund policy, auto-renewal terms, account URL and phone hours could not be read directly. Values marked "search-result text" need confirming.
- Turning off auto-renewal needs sign-in to the McAfee account.
- Do not use "McAfee support" phone numbers from search results, pop-ups or emails; fake renewal invoices with call-back numbers are a common scam.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
McAfee charged me [amount] on [date] and I did not authorize it. Use Escalate Anything to get it reversed.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin