Thunderbird support tech promoting $$$ anti-hacking software????
Today I phoned this number: 1-888-450-3444. It had been given to me as the Mozilla Thunderbird support number by an AOL support person, who had been unable to solve my problem, and who said it was not AOL, it must be Thunderbird. It's a scam. The "Thunderbird" support tech who answered took over my computer and ran a number of tests. For all I know he has stolen everything, but see nothing missing yet. He said my home network had been hacked, and asked if I was calling from Nebraska, since that is where there was some origin (I don't recall whether it was my IP address, or my emails, or something). He drew pictures on my screen showing how one of the devices using my home network had been compromised, allowing the hacker to take over the network via the router. He then suggested I purchase SSL Anti Hacking Network Security from an entity called Reliance Digital Tech, LLC., for prices ranging from $299.99 for one year, up to $1199.99 for lifetime support for unlimited devices. Started to smell a rat. He denied having any financial connection with that firm. He wanted to switch me over to the company immediately, but I put him off and searched the company name ... it is a residential address in Paramus, NJ. I called my ISP, Verizon DSL, and the tech explained to me that what I was told about the router being hacked was utterly impossible. The answer message from the number above, when called after hours, is anonymous.
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Thankyou for your post.
Just to confirm: There is no support telephone number for Thunderbird. It is a free email client program that depends upon donations and people offering their skills and other help for free. There is no office full of switchboards and people waiting for your calls. Support is offered freely via this forum and there are a few other support forums acting in the same manner. It is largely manned by volunteers offering their time to help fellow users of Thunderbird. Those volunteers are located all around the world so helping to cover across timezones.
Please note that anyone can offer their IT / technical services for a fee and anyone can choose to pay for services. But you will not find that occurring by anyone offering support via this forum.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/avoid-and-report-mozilla-tech-support-scams
The AOL support person (if real) probably just searched for Thunderbird support phone in a search engine and found this as a result and not realize it was obviously fake.
Even Mozilla does not have one on one support options by phone, chat or email for Firefox as it would cost too much to provide the needed call centres for free.
The AOL guy was real. I realized later what you said about his having searched and found. Turns out the AOL guys with whom I had spoken were wrong, I had correctly inferred the cause (related to two-step verification, as Toad-Hall suggested). Today a chat session with another AOL staffer, who did "listen" better, solved the problem (Toad-Hall is correct). The language used on the AOL page could be lots plainer English ... I didn't realize the "app" for which a separate password was sought, was Thunderbird, and a part of two-step verification. To me it was geekspeak.
How to I contact Mozilla to see why Google considers Thunderbird an insecure site and would not allow it access to my email account.
To BJFT Gmail would prefer that you use their webmail accessed via a browser. That is not necessarilly what the user wants to do.
Google/gmail considers any third party email client as a 'less secure app' if they do not use IMAP connection and Authentication method 'OAuth2'.
Thunderbird can connect to gmail accounts using IMAP and OAuth2.
Using what gmail calls 'less secure app' option selected via gmail webmail allows POP mail accounts a connection. If you use a strong password then it is not a less secure means of connecting.
As an alternative and particuary useful if you also use a phone, is to use gmails 'two-step verification' method in which case you would need to generate an application specific password to use in Thunderbird instead of your password.