Email security

[floraandfire]

Hello,

I had my account frozen today due to an alert of unauthorized use on my email.  I got help from Comcast security to restore it.  But then they forwarded me over to a guard program that had a free 30-day trial, then $14.99 a month after that.  It required me to give my address, phone, AND social security number.  The gentleman said the guard program would use all that information to look for anyone trying to get into my account or use it. 

I couldn't bring myself to give them my Social Security number, so chose to cancel the request.  

The gentleman reassured me it was secure, but I followed my gut.

What do you think?  Should I have signed on and given my SS number?

[Latoque]

I'm not sure if it's legitimate or not.  Don't do anything further with it until you have been contacted by a Comcast employee here in the forum.  I'm escalating your post to the forum admins for follow-up.

[ComcastKenF]

floraandfire, thanks for reaching out about your security concerns. I have looked over your account and I see where you were helped by our security team to change your password. I do not see the details of the guard program offering. 

XFINITY Internet customers can get the top-rated Norton Security Suite ($39.99 value) at no additional cost. When downloading the suite from our xfinity site, only your Comcast user name and ID are needed. Let me know if you're interested in getting Norton. I can send you the necessary link(s). 
 

[floraandfire]

See, that's exactly what concerns me. I got the help to turn on the second level of verification, and to change my password, but then the same guy sent me over to this guard program wanting mY SS #....so suddenly I'm thinking "am I really on official comcast". And when I hesitated, he kept insisting that he was an employee of comcast, and only trying to set me up with protection .
This is stressfull, not knowing what is real.

[floraandfire]

Another question ...I have Avast...can it and Norton co-exist?

[ComcastKenF]

I understand how you feel, floraandfire. I'm not sure if the social security number is recommended or needed to get Norton through Comcast via the method you took Whether or not that was a valid Comcast agent is a question for our Security Assurance team. 

Unfortunately, Avast and Norton cannot co exist. When going through the prompts to set up Norton, you are required to remove any preexisting security programs. 

[floraandfire]

So would you stay with Avast, or move to Norton? Would appreciate a thoughtful answer about this. I, along with most I'm sure, feel pretty vulnerable, and don't want to be taken in circles!!!

[ComcastKenF]

The decision is totally up to you. They are both good antivirus/security protection programs. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but in the past, Avast needed you to manually run the virus checks-- while Norton does not-- so I prefer Norton for that reason. 

You can download the Norton suite for free as an internet customer. You can try it out--see if you like it. If you don't, you can uninstall it and go back to Avast. If you're interested, just let me know if you have a mac or a PC so I can send you the download link so you can try it out. 

[floraandfire]

I actually have both...so send them all please.

[ComcastKenF]

floraandfire, you can download them both here: http://constantguard.xfinity.com/