If you’ve received an expensive bill for services you didn’t request, you may be the target of an online scam. Fraudsters often impersonate reputable companies like Geek Squad to gain your trust, but following their instructions will lead to you losing money. I’ll explain how the Geek Squad email scam works, how to spot a fake invoice, and what you can do to prevent these malicious emails from ever reaching your inbox.
How does the Geek Squad email scam work?
This kind of scam is known as callback phishing and usually begins with an email or text message that claims to be from a well-known company (often Geek Squad, but it could also be Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Windows, PayPal, Adobe, Netflix, or others). The message says you owe, or have already been charged, hundreds of dollars for purchases you haven’t made, but it also says you can dispute the charge and claim a full refund, provided you contact customer support soon.
Here’s the catch: the whole thing is fake. You haven’t been billed for anything, and the “customer support” representative is actually a scammer who will attempt to steal personal information such as your banking information, home address, and Social Security number.
If you’ve received an email like this, the best course of action is to:
- Take a moment. This scam often mentions a time limit so that you rush into action without properly considering the consequences. According to a 2026 study from Huntress, urgency was a factor in 30.6 percent of all phishing attempts.
- Ignore any links and attachments. If this is a scam email, the attachments will likely install malware on your device. Similarly, the links probably lead to a website that looks correct but is designed to steal your login information.
- Look for telltale signs of a scam email. If a bill doesn’t mention you by name, and instead refers to you as “Customer”, it’s almost certainly a scam. Typos, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes are another dead giveaway.
- Verify that the order is fake. Check your bank account to make sure no funds have been taken. If the message claims to be from a company you’ve used before, find the company’s website and check your purchase history directly.
- Report the email as a scam and block the sender. Reporting scams helps email providers investigate scammers, potentially saving other people from falling victim.
Everything you need to know about scam emails
Most people wouldn’t trust an unsolicited email promising riches, but are less suspicious of messages from Geek Squad or Adobe. This makes sense: it wouldn’t be unusual to receive regular invoices from these companies, so when they tell you there’s a problem, you’re more likely to listen.
Unfortunately, scammers take advantage of this fact, using fake invoices or sales receipts to get you to contact them and hand over your valuable personal information. This is callback phishing, and it’s extremely common, accounting for 18 percent of all phishing attempts in Q4 of 2025. The FBI reports $215 million was stolen via phishing that same year, with an average loss of $1126.75 per victim. That’s scary, but protecting yourself is as simple as knowing the warning signs
How to spot a fake Geek Squad email
Below, you’ll find a real Geek Squad scam email that first made the rounds in 2022. I’ve modified the sender’s email address and phone number for safety reasons; otherwise, the email is unchanged. Each red number highlights a sign that something isn’t quite right.
- You’d expect the email to come from Geek Squad or perhaps Best Buy, and at first glance, that appears to be true. However, the sender used a website subdomain to hide the fact that it actually came from totallylegitimate.xyz, an entirely different website.
- This is Geek Squad’s old logo, which hasn’t been used since 2017.
- If a company has enough information to bill you, it also has your full name. Calling you “user” or “customer” indicates they do not have this information, and also allows scammers to send the same email to thousands of people.
- Note the poor grammar, random capitalization, and broken English. Best Buy (which owns Geek Squad) is a multi-billion-dollar company and would never approve this.
- It’s not clear what service you’re supposedly paying for. Just a vague ‘one-year subscription’.
- Only five states don’t charge sales tax. If you live anywhere other than New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, and Delaware, sales tax should be applied.
- Being given a short time limit to respond is always a red flag. 24 hours is far too short for a legitimate invoice. Anything less than 7 days is an immediate red flag. Always check the official website because Geek Squad’s terms and conditions say that you have 30 days to cancel for a refund.
- This customer support number does not match the one listed on Best Buy’s website.
Not every scam email is this obvious, which is why it’s so important to go with your gut. If you read an email and something feels off, or your first reaction is panic, it’s worth spending a few minutes verifying whether it’s genuine.
If you still can’t tell if an email is real or not:
- Do not respond to the received email or click on any links.
- Instead, find the company’s official website and their customer support email address or ‘contact us’ form.
- Contact them directly, explain the message you’ve received, and ask whether it’s legitimate.
What can I do to stop getting fake Geek Squad emails?
The first thing you should do is block the sender and report the message. Just find your preferred email service in the list below and follow the instructions:
| Email service | How to report phishing | How to block sender |
|---|---|---|
| Outlook | Report > Report Phishing | Block > Block Sender |
| Gmail | Click three dots on the right-hand side > Report phishing | Click three dots on the right-hand side > Block [sendername] |
| iCloud | Click the junk button, then forward the message to reportphishing@apple.com | Click the sender’s name, open their contact card, and select Block this contact |
| Proton Mail | Click the three dots above the message > Report phishing | Click the sender’s email address and hit Block messages from this sender |
Unfortunately, spam is everywhere, so blocking a single email address won’t help much. Instead, you may want to tell your email service to block all messages that include a particular phrase. Just be careful if you go down this route: blocking phrases like “Dear User” or “Claim your prize” should be fine, but blocking the term “Geek Squad” could mean you don’t receive legitimate communications from the company. Of course, if you never use Geek Squad or live in a place where it’s not even available, there’s no problem.
Scammers often spam email addresses that are available online. If your email address is visible on your website, social media, or LinkedIn page, removing it may reduce the number of fraudulent messages you receive. There are also tools like Incogni that can automatically remove your details from people search sites for a small fee.
What should I do if I’ve fallen for a scam email?
It’s embarrassing to admit you’ve been scammed, but being honest about it will limit the damage and may increase the chances of getting your money back. If you’ve been scammed once, you’re more likely to be targeted again, so suffering in silence will not help.
First, let your bank know what has happened. They’ll freeze your account, preventing any more money from being lost, and may even be able to reverse the charges.
Next, run an antivirus scan on your computer using a program like TotalAV or Norton Security. Malicious email attachments often contain viruses that allow scammers to access your computer without your knowledge, so preventing this should be your next-highest priority.
Finally, it’s time to change your passwords and consider setting up two-factor authentication so that nobody can log in without you knowing. I recommend using a password manager to create secure, unique passwords for every site you use.
Conclusion
Cybercriminals are constantly inventing new ways to steal your money. The best defense is knowing what common online scams look like and treating any unexpected correspondence with a healthy degree of skepticism. Most email scams rely on you taking action, so ignoring anything that’s even slightly suspicious is usually the right move.