hello lovebaha, unfortunately it sounds like you fell victim for online fraud - genuine downloads of firefox and other mozilla products are clean of any bundled crap or malware and you have most certainly communicated with fraudulent "technicians", which are not related to mozilla at all, but misusing a trusted brand. genuine mozilla sites including download and support are on domains ending in .mozilla.org. if you still can reconstruct from your browser history where this scam was happening, please report it at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/legal/fraud-report/ so that further actions can be taken against it.

You can sent a report to The FBI via their web site Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) {web link}

You can also report such a site at; Google Report Phishing Page {web link} which is the same when done while on site by going to Help > Report Web Forgery

Help us safeguard Mozilla’s trademarks by reporting misuse {web link}

How did you find these so called Mozilla techs? As for example on Google search there are often Google Ads above the real search results. The Google Ads above search results when searching for say Mozilla or Firefox for example are often times links to questionable sites to say the least.

Mozilla does not do one on on support by phone, email or chat. There used to be a volunteer chat support thing before but even then there was no identity information dealt with nor any remote access done.

The problem is that Mozilla denies that there is ANY malware associated with downloads from www.mozilla.org, however that is untrue according to my own experience and the experience of many others I found in Mozilla's own User Forum.

I am a former programmer and have a lot of respect for other programmers. However it only takes one bad apple.... If there is no real corporate accountability then there is neither help for anyone who is affected by the bad apples nor is there any incentive to make sure that problems are fixed. Ultimately SOMEONE has to be in charge.

I don't think you would suggest that I report Mozilla itself to the FBI or other federal agency if your mind weren't closed to the possibility that Mozilla is actually at fault in some way. I've had many years experience with the NIH (not-invented-here) syndrome and have never found it helpful or productive in any way. If anything it prevents real examination of any problem.

In addition, any software corporation that does not provide its application users with easily-found information on where to find legitimate technical support, as opposed to possible scammers, will eventually lose ALL its users. People will only put up with so much.

Do you still think I should report MOZILLA to the government?

The first tech I found was on the supposed Mozilla Facebook page. I realized later that could very well have been some fake page. However the second one was from a phone number given to me by my own local police when I reported what happened.

The first tech, from India, started telling me some pretty alarming and very suspicious things about my system so I stopped him. The second tech may have been legitimate (he said he was in Toronto) but when he tried to sell me some software "we can get you" and couldn't tell me who "we" are, I became suspicious and shutdown. I HOPE he wasn't legit because he stared calling me every 30 seconds and unleashing a vile stream of curse words at me for"wasting his time". If that is how Mozilla associates act, it is just another reason to jetison ALL Mozilla software.

Please see my other two replies. There is no one so blind as we are wehn we accept whatever we have been taught without engaging our own "independent investigation of truth".

It was INDEED the www.mozilla.org site where I got the malware from their download software. If you don't believe me, look at your own Firefox for Computers User Support Forum where a number of others have reported the same problem and NO ONE has denied their reports.

Again Mozilla does not have ANY phone techs, especially not from India. Just because you found some fishy so called tech support does not mean they were in any way connected with Mozilla. That number you got from your local Police was probably a number he or she found in a quick Google search and did not know any better about the source and was perhaps just trying to get the phone free for real emergencies.

No version of Firefox for any OS whether Windows, Mac OSX or Linux from Mozilla.org has EVER been proven to come with any malware, trojans. virus, adware, toolbars, bundled in applications or other crap. It would hurt Mozilla far too much for what little financial gain in comparison. The only time there was a concern was when Firefox was called by its second name Firebird and a contributed locale build (Chinese I think) was infected. This was before Mozilla supported other languages when version 1.0 was released.

If your claim of malware in a recent Release of Firefox was true that Firefox for say Windows came with something bad that should not be in it then it would be a very hot topic here, at the independent mozillaZine forums, tech forums and tech news sites for starters.

If you have malware on you computer it was likely either already infected or due to something else you installed or updated recently.

Some download sites bundle stuff in like for example download .com aka cnet is a known adware site that bundles stuff with otherwise clean applications.

Oh sure there have been some threads of claims that Firefox insert version was infected with something(s) but often times the OP either never gave any real proof or never came back with proof to back up ecpt maybe a "what more do you need as it is infected!!!:", or realized his/her computer was infected already or by some other means and people who replied gave links to say virustotal to help show the OP claim was false.

Also note that some antivirus clients have been known to give false positive in which they usually fixed in short notice.

All clean according to virus total.

Firefox Setup Stub 32.0.3.exe en-US Detection ratio: 0 / 55 https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/f0b9456d3b3798f2ad314f76e407c0e2306f3c312984f31464c33f022e545f30/analysis/1411619997/

Firefox Setup 32.0.3.exe en-US Detection ratio: 0 / 52 https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/c2e1104576f67e5e05425e03bb3a3ffb78f235d68fdd2647c896810785c4a35f/analysis/1411620112/

Firefox has a link to this forum in the Help menu > Firefox Help, so you assertion that "... any software corporation that does not provide its application users with easily-found information on where to find legitimate technical support ..." is incorrect. As far as your assertion that Mozilla hosts Firefox versions that are riddled with Malware is just plain wrong.

As far as the "techs" you have dealt with online and by telephone, none represented Mozilla in any official capacity - period. Concerning the "tech" in Toronto, Mozilla does not sell software - period. Everything developed by Mozilla is no charge to the end user - ever, and Mozilla doesn't sell or distribute software made by other companies - period.

"... without engaging our own "independent investigation of truth"." The time to "investigate" is before you make poor decisions about what you accept as support advice or you jump to conclusions about who is at fault for your poor decisions.

What was the phone numbers as I suspect one of the two was 1-855-366-8066

Doing a search on Google for say Firefox phone support or Mozilla phone support leads to http://www.guruaid.ca/browser_support/mozilla_firefox/mozilla_firefox_phone_support.php which is NOT connected to Mozilla.org in any way. This site was in a Google Ad as it would not show up in the real search results.

Or maybe it was 1-888-753-5164 as even though this site was in the real search results it is NOT connected to Mozilla.org in any way. http://www.supportbuddy.net/mozilla-firefox-support.php

Mozilla did have a third-party email tech support years ago but that was short lived. They were basically pay for cue card tech support.

The phone number I got off the official-looking "Mozilla Corporate" Facebook site was 661-748-0240 and "Steve" said he was in New Delhi. I'm sure I dialed a "1" country code or I would have remembered. Since so many companies have contracted their customer service out to India I thought nothing of it at the time.

The phone number I got from my local police was 1-800-299-0962. That got me another Indian man who said he was in Toronto. Later when I pressed him he said his company was "Techstation". He's the one who kept calling and cursing me.

I included the ethnicity only in case it will help identify anybody. However, I want to make it very clear that I absolutely do not believe in prejudice against anyone for any reason. All countries/groups/associations/education levels/etc have both good and bad members.

It may be true that there has been no proof that the malware came from Mozilla because the others who got it also immediately uninstalled everything that had just been downloaded. I don't think it came from Firefox itself though. It either came from a corrupted link or the download program itself which, since ALL were absolutely on the mozilla.org site, I assumed was safe. That was a BAD ASSUMPTION that I will never make with ANY site again. That is also why I will always insist on highly visible CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY from now on. Malware can infect ANY site or application. It is only when no one accepts accountability to honestly look into it and report back or fully fix it that the users feel unsupported and need to move on.

I do agree that I should have been much more careful in seeking help.. However "Firefox Help" only consists of canned FAQs that do not cover everything (nor could they). The only other "help" is this User Forum. I have posted at least 3 other questions there that were NEVER answered by anyone and they were not "stupid" questions although that shouldn't matter.

How is everyone certain that those were NOT real Mozilla techs that I dealt with? Are you all-knowing or is it just that Mozilla does NOT provide any "tech" help that makes you so sure that they were not from Mozilla? I do agree, however, that I would not expect Mozilla to try to sell me anything - hence my immediate disconnect from that "tech".

I DO NOT AGREE that it was all my "poor decisions" that lead to this. You are far too assured that it did not start with malware or a bad link from the mozilla.org site. Why then all the numerous other user Forum posts from other users that had the same problem? Blind defense of anything is a gut-level, personal reaction rather than a fully reasoned one. I assume you are some of the Mozilla developers and you are probably very moral people, however you cannot really assume that of everyone there, can you!

This is the only official Mozilla contacts which can easily be found on mozilla.org and if they actually did phone support themselves or by third-party it would be mentioned. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contact/spaces/

So because your computer was already infected and or another program install or update did the infection you still think Firefox from www.mozilla.org is not clean.

Mozilla has Never had one on tech support by phone of their own just like many open source companies do not. They do not have any partnership with a third-party phone support either.

The only thing they had for a short time was the third-party email support years ago.

Just because you local police gave you the "1-800-299-0962" it does not mean it was officially connected with Mozilla in any way as the person probably just found it in a quick search engine search and was probably trying to be helpful or to get the phone cleared for real emergency calls.

You have not given any proof and the so called forum posts have never proven otherwise. There were different reasons for their claims like their computer was already infected (or by another program install/update0 and they only noticed after a Firefox install or update and they then wrongly assumed it must have been due to Firefox install or update. Or they negelte to mention that get got Firefox from some shady site instead of mozilla.org. Or maybe it was just a false positive as some AV's sometimes tend to do with the stub installer but not full setup and get threads about thios false positive sometimes.

Look it would hurt Mozilla far too much in losing users and their image for what little financial gain they would get by knowingly putting in anything bad like a virus. They also take security and privacy very seriously and they are not quiet about security like many browser companies are as you can see in https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/

Oh sure people have made claims over the years but since there was no actual proof given it never went anywhere.

Also think about it, if a recent Firefox release from mozilla.org was indeed infected with a virus it would not be something nobody would be talking about a lot here, on mozillazine, on tech forums and sites everywhere.

Also according to your account here this is the only thread you have made and also posted in.

This reply is to James. I didn't know there were any more replies until I checked on my alternate email site.

The only argument that has made some sense to me in this forum is that my virus/malware detector may have erroneously reported it as malware. I CONCEDE THAT ONE. However when something like that happens, that is when it is most important to be able to talk to someone who has enough corporate knowledge to be able to help. That is why I now state that it is VERY important to only deal with software developers that have CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY.

Your statement that “Mozilla has Never had one on tech support by phone of their own just like many open source companies do not. They do not have any partnership with a third-party phone support either” makes my case for me. No matter how good any open source developer is, if there is no corporate identity that can be easily contacted when there is a problem, it is the user who bears ALL the burden of whatever problem that software caused or appeared to cause. When people begin to realize just what that means they, as I have, will decide that given the plethora of similar software out there , there is no need to take a chance with unsupported (for users) software. Not only that but without a corporate entity to walk the user through to PROVE that THEIR software DIDN’T cause the problem, the more and more dissatisfied users there will be who will tell others about what they perceive to be serious but ignored technical issues of that software. Almost every single one of the replies to my post here has been some form of CYA! I have only seen a couple of USEFUL suggestions. That has not helped Mozilla in any way.

I never said it was Firefox that caused the problem. It was the download program from the Mozilla.org site. It had some additional application that seemed to be the problem. Given everything you say about the trustworthiness of the Mozilla.org site, we should be able to trust that everything there is malware free. Might I have somehow been redirected without my knowledge? Perhaps, but that is still a Mozilla problem as I never clicked on any link but the download one.

Lastly, this is NOT the only thread I have created in this Forum. However, at no time have I been able to find any of my other posts. If this is a Mozilla problem then it needs to be addressed or there will be more dissatisfied users. In any case it certainly contributed to my despair when I couldn’t find answers to my original issue.

Having conceded that it was very likely a false positive malware report, I have continued to use Firefox and will do so until I have found another good browser WITH corporate accountability or I run into a serious problem I cannot solve myself or get authentic help to solve. I will also be very careful to use the link provided to me by another replier in this conversation in case I was somehow redirected in my download.

I looked up that 661-748-0240 number in Google. Here are 3 comments about that number:

1) My husband just to a call on his cell phone from this number 661-748-0240. They said they were calling from Microsoft and that his computer was infected with multiple trojan horses and he needed to pay for their help to remove them. They said that his computer had come to their attention because it was sending messages to the Microsoft office.

SCAM

2) Received a call 7/30/12 from man with heavy, thick Indian accent. Said he was calling to inform us that we "won a prize!" Went on to list a trip, new vehicle, TV and said we'd have to drive to Lake Geneva, WI to claim it. Told him we are on Do Not Call list, remove us immediately and we are reporting him to FTC.

SCAM

3) I just got the same call but he said he had to refund me $299. I told him I never paid that and I didn't want the refund he was being very pushy saying you need to use a computer to get you refund I said sorry all I have is my iPad mini. Told me to ask a friend to use there's that when I said no thanks. Soooo very sketchy

SCAM

As for the 800-299-0962 number your police gave you:

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My suggestion, ALWAYS search for the phone number before calling any company. Use the format with and without hyphens. ie "8774875662" "877-487-5662"