Hargray warning creates stir, doubts

More than 1,000 Hargray customers have received an email warning them their Internet access might be blocked unless they remove viruses from their computers, but questions have arisen whether the customers actually have viruses.

The email, dated March 10 and forwarded to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette by an angry customer, says, “we have reason to believe that one or more computers on your home network have been compromised with a virus.”

The email then goes on to say that users are often unaware their computer has a virus, describes viruses and how they work, provides links to virus scanners and ends with specific instructions to disinfect their computers by 3 p.m. March 15 “in order to prevent an interruption” to service.

The customer who forwarded the email to the paper says he called Hargray after receiving the email and received confirmation his computer was not infected but was told he could buy antivirus protection from one of the company’s partners. The employee told the customer the correspondence is “a mass email that we’ve sent out to all of our customers over a period of time” letting them know about different security issues. The customer provided the newspapers with a recording of the conversation, in which the employee confirms the email “is not necessarily stating that you have anything” wrong with your computer.

Exasperated by the worrisome email — followed by a sales pitch — from the Hargray representative, the customer says, “Does nobody at Hargray see how messed up that is?”

Hargray was only trying to protect its customers and the integrity of its network, said Gerrit Albert, vice president of sales and marketing. The call center employee gave out incorrect information and the messaging was not a mass email, Albert said. Those who received a message have been confirmed by the company to have a virus.

Albert said one conversation should not impugn the company’s integrity, and that it is “impossible to read our customer letter as anything other than an effort to inform our customers of an issue.”

The email is signed by the company’s marketing director, Eddie Andrews. Reached Friday, Andrews acknowledged that “the language (in the email) is rather unnerving” for customers.

But, “the intent was not to induce fear or panic,” he said.

Andrews said the email was sent to 2.4 percent of the company’s roughly 45,000 internet customers — users flagged as potentially having viruses.

Suspicious activity commonly associated with spammers or hackers was detected on IP addresses associated with those customers’ modems, he said.

Andrews said the emails were not sent in an effort to drum up business for SecurityCoverage, an antivirus service provider and Hargray corporate partner.

“There’s no correlation,” he said.

The email does include links to a series of other antivirus products unaffiliated with Hargray. If a Hargray customer’s computer is infected with a virus, “the solution does not have to be provided by the partner that we have,” he said. “But if they chose to use (SecurityCoverage), that would be fine.”

Andrews said confusion from both customers and employees over the email’s intent and meaning highlights a need for the company to “double-down and circle back on training.”

“We need to work on being very clear on what the customer needs to do and why we sent the communication,” he said.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Hargray warning creates stir, doubts."