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This is an online marketplace to buy refurbished technology products like computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. on the cheap and with some warranty.
Pl share your experience of purchases through this site and how one makes sure what one buys does not come with malware and how to eliminate any malware. Does a resetting to manufacturer settings help eliminate any malware?
@BaluBalu- Hi there- I stumbled across your question accidentally because I was bored and hadn't looked at the technical questions section for many months.
I can see why you posted here with your question, but this section was originally designed to ask technical questions regarding the actual operation of the MFO website. It was mostly used in the early days of MFO when we weren't quite sure about how do do things.
Your question is interesting, but the odds of anyone giving an answer here are almost nonexistent. I strongly recommend that you change the category to Off-Topic. That's where we generally talk about things that are not directly related to investments. OT doesn't get all that much attention, but it will surely be better than here, and a number of the folks who frequent the OT arena might be able to help on this. I'd also be interested in any info on this.
@BaluBalu- Well, this is interesting- my answer (above) to you has propelled your question into the "Discussions +" arena. It might get a fair amount of viewers here, so maybe leave it alone for a while and let's see what happens.
MFO Discussions include posts from 4 areas: Fund Discussions, Other Investing, Technical Questions, MFO Premium. Off-topic posts are NOT shown in MFO Discussions. When starting a new post, above 5 areas are offered for post selection. I saw @BaluBalu's post in MFO Discussions (here).
Even if there's malware on the newly arrived machinery, you can install Malwarebytes for free. It works well for me. I've not been infected with either malware nor a virus in many years. There are PAID, PREMIUM versions available, too:
"MFO Discussions include posts from 4 areas: Fund Discussions, Other Investing, Technical Questions, MFO Premium."
That's true, but some of those categories (areas) will only populate outside their original category if there is one or more comments to the original post. Trust me- this goes back many years to work around a poster named "Ted". Long story. Also a very dull long story.
I used Malwarebytes for a few years. I do not recall if I used their paid version but my then computer became increasingly slow after. Then I tried McAfee paid version and not sure what all it cleaned from my computer but the computer functioned normally. Ever since I paid for McAfee.
Last night, I renewed my McAfee license by upgrading it to McAfee+ Premium to a new two year subscription for $35 / yr (unlimited devices) - I use it only on one device. I can add McAfee to any iPad I buy from backmarket.com. I am completely computer technology ignorant and hence, the extra caution expressed in the OP.
@Old_Joe, I just did a test post in Technical Questions and it showed up (for me) in MFO Discussions. May be the MFO software has changed from the old times.
I have used them to buy refurbished Pixel 6A twice 3 times. The first time I bought it, I had no problem. The second time, they sent me a demo phone by mistake, and it didn't work. I got the money back and ordered the third time and got a good one. We have had them for several months, and they are great.
@FD1000, Do you use those Pixels to access financial accounts , banks, brokerages, etc? Do you use any anti virus? Do you some how wipe those Pixels of all potential malware/ viruses before using?
I know you are an IT specialist. So, your practices with these purchases are good enough for me.
I was planning to buy an iPad from this site to gift to someone else and so I want to make sure I inadvertently do not harm them.
I use the Pixels to access everything. I always used my cell phone to access everything. I use Brave as my browser everywhere (phone, laptop, tablet). I don't use any antivirus on the phone and tablet. The only one I worry about is the laptop, Windows 11 MSFT defender is pretty good. Years ago I used the free AVG antivirus, but Defender is pretty good, and I got rid of AVG. In over 30 years I had one virus, which CCleaner killed in 2 minutes. It was at least 10 years ago. I never found viruses on Android.
Backmarket.com got good reviews. They also give you a limited warranty that lasts for twelve (12) months, starting on the date the product is delivered to the buyer.
This is an online marketplace to buy refurbished technology products like computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. on the cheap and with some warranty.
Pl share your experience of purchases through this site and how one makes sure what one buys does not come with malware and how to eliminate any malware. Does a resetting to manufacturer settings help eliminate any malware?
Why buy there rather than at eBay? Sellers on ebay will have a longer track record of buyer reviews. Depending on who you buy from, you will also get more detailed descriptions and pictures of the actual item for sale. That doesn't seem to be the case a backmarket.
I recently helped my daughter buy an HP EliteBook 845 G7 for 229$ on ebay. The same model starts at 539$ on backmarket, and there is only one other choice. EBay certified models start at 249.00$ and there are many more choices.
All that being said, I wouldn't worry about malware on refurbished devices from a site like that. The main things to worry about are the accuracy of description of the condition and how well it is packed for shipment.
Nasty scratches, dead pixels, gummy keyboards are a real drag as are shattered screen due to poor packaging.
I was planning to buy an iPad from this site to gift to someone else and so I want to make sure I inadvertently do not harm them.
Sorry. I didn't see this.
I would not recommend buying used Apple products. Speaking as a former seller of e-recycled tech, we could charge more, but there was also a higher rate of returns and complaints with used Apple products. It was a common topic of conversation whenever I met people in that line. As a first-line e-recycler it was often easier to sell items in bulk to people willing to deal with the peculiar headaches of Apple gear and Apple users.
Well, I do have to note that we have six Mac Minis (late 2014 version) scattered around, and all but one were bought second-hand from a wide variety of internet sellers, and I've never had a bit of trouble with any of them. The latest OS that they can run is Monterey (12.7.4), but they do just about anything that we need. When received from seller I completely wiped everything and cloned a known good OS from another mini.
I still occasionally need to run some ancient programs (those came before "apps", remember?), so on my main setup I have a kvm switch that allows me to use Monterey and El Capitan minis, and even my ancient G5 emulating OS9. Believe it or not they can all see each other on the local ethernet, and transfer those files which are compatible between them.
I have bought 2 iMacs, 3 iPhones, and 2 iPad Minis used in the past several years, using both EBay and Swappa. Results have been very satisfactory. They have all been recent, mint condition models sold by individuals who retained original packaging materials.
Good to know we have all this Tech expertise in the forum I can fall back on in the future.
@Old_Joe, I am so technologically challenged, your post was Greek and Latin to me. I do not need to understand everything; it is comforting to know you guys are here.
Mac Minis were easy to sell on eBay because they were easy to package and there were always buyers that were nuts about them dead or alive.
@Old_joe's 2014 editions would have been brand new to me. If they can't run the latest OS from Apple I wonder if they can run linux? Silly me. Of course you can.
iMacs were a pain to sell, so I was always happy to find someone local who was willing to take lots of them off my hands.
iPhones and iPads were usually trashed by the time they made it to us. Those could could be bundled by date and model number and sold in lots on eBay to parts buyers.
I certainly sold used Apple products to many people that were perfectly satisfied. It was just my experience that they developed fiddly hardware problems at a higher rate than other manufacturers. But that was just about 15% all-cause issues to 5%. What was more irritating was that it always seemed to be the case that the newer Apple products were less robust and required new sets of cables to connect anything external.
I like iPhones myself. Android always strikes me as some ugly linux desktop from the late 20th century. I look for sellers that have new phones that have recently gone out of production. Even then they don't last nearly as long as the old original iPhone 2G I had for many years.
@BaluBalu, I think you made the right choice for you. As with investing, there is much to be said for the comfort level of the shopping experience for tech.
Hope not too far removed. There were numerous sellers up and down the sidewalks of Times Square when I visited NYC a few weeks ago with stacks and stacks of unopened Apple products for sale at 50% or more off. I use mostly Apple products and know what the factory packaging looks like. Two hunches - (1) The items were likely stolen off the shelves by organized raids of thieves which have become common in big cities and (2) Signing the device in on my Apple account likely would have been impossible since Apple surely has the ID numbers of any stolen merchandise. I suppose for some who don’t want to sign-in to use the devices or enable the GPS they might have been a good bargain. But turn on the GPS / location feature and there might soon be a knock on the door from your friendly police.
Another possibility is these were “knock-offs” (fakes) …
@BaluBalu- A KVM switch is a device that allows the use of a single keyboard (K), video monitor (V), and mouse (M) to be switched between two or more separate computers.
I have two small minis stacked on top of an ancient G5 (definitely not "mini"). Each of those computers runs a different Mac Operating System (OS), and they can all be run at the same time. The different operating systems are necessary because I have some very old programs/apps that will not run on the newer Mac Operating Systems. The KVM switch allows instant switching between any of the computers.
It's actually a pretty clunky setup with wires and cables everywhere, but I have the room for it and it works OK for my needs. Not recommended for sane people.
I have used McAfee only on Windows products before and did not install McAfee on my iphone and ipad. After my McAfee subscription renewal last week, somehow McAfee started detecting my Mac products and when I am on my Mac products it kept notifying me via a popup that I need to protect my them with McAfee. I kept ignoring it until this evening all of a sudden an automatic McAfee scan ran on my iphone and it notified me that there is a Trojan on my iphone. So, I downloaded McAfee antivirus on the iphone (I have unlimited licenses as part of the renewed subscription which probably the marketing department did not know) and I asked it to run a scan of the iphone and it turned up nothing. What am I missing?
I think I know how it detected my other devices on which I did not add McAfee. The newer subscription came with a Wi-Fi Scan feature and i think McAfee is able to detect all the devices using the same Wi-Fi router, though I do not run the devices as a network (the devices are not connected via a network).
I do not understand such an aggressive behavior from McAfee, which is currently owned by a group of private equity investors.
Is McAfee really necessary on Mac products?
Do routers get hacked in a way that any device on it can become vulnerable?
I am inclined to turn the Wi-Fi scan off on all devices and then uninstall McAfee from the Mac products. I do not like so much intrusion and I do not want to be a slave to McAfee.
A McAfee popup informs that the PC (or phone) is infected and you cannot easily close it or get rid of it.
I got the PC going somehow, ran Windows Defender in Quick Scan, Off-line Scan and Full Scan modes - nothing detected.
Searched the web. Found the McAfee popup spam issue and also the remedy.
So, I looked in Chrome Site Settings and and among the Recent Sites, noted the offending website generating these spam notifications. Deleted it.
I also looked at my cookies list and deleted all cookies with long unfamiliar URLs.
Since the 1st episode, I have had repeat episodes. But I now know the routine.
What's in it for the spamming site? May be when people get scared and do signup for McAfee, it gets a cut for directing people there, but I am not sure. This looks like a bad and sneaky way to do business.
@Balu. antivirus products are not necessary on Macs. Maybe for peace of mind, but I don't run them.
At least for Macs, more important are good adblocking software in your browser or home network, which stops a lot of cr*p (both legal and malicious) from being downloaded to your machine in the background.
Windows systems, I don't touch with a 100' pole for anything - both for usability & security/privacy reasons - unless it's for test/research purposes (ie malware, hacking tools, etc, etc.) and run inside a 'sandbox' that can be easily controlled from the outside and/or quickly reconstructed if I bork it up.
I've been using Macs for some thirty years and have never needed McAfee or any other antivirus product. rforno is right- good ad-blocking software is all that you need.
i use the Firefox browser which incorporates ad-blocking software, the DuckDuckGo search engine which does no tracking, and also uBlock as added ad-blocking protection.
I have used McAfee only on Windows products before and did not install McAfee on my iphone and ipad. After my McAfee subscription renewal last week, somehow McAfee started detecting my Mac products and when I am on my Mac products it kept notifying me via a popup that I need to protect my them with McAfee. I kept ignoring it until this evening all of a sudden an automatic McAfee scan ran on my iphone and it notified me that there is a Trojan on my iphone. So, I downloaded McAfee antivirus on the iphone (I have unlimited licenses as part of the renewed subscription which probably the marketing department did not know) and I asked it to run a scan of the iphone and it turned up nothing. What am I missing?
I think I know how it detected my other devices on which I did not add McAfee. The newer subscription came with a Wi-Fi Scan feature and i think McAfee is able to detect all the devices using the same Wi-Fi router, though I do not run the devices as a network (the devices are not connected via a network).
I do not understand such an aggressive behavior from McAfee, which is currently owned by a group of private equity investors.
Is McAfee really necessary on Mac products?
Do routers get hacked in a way that any device on it can become vulnerable?
I am inclined to turn the Wi-Fi scan off on all devices and then uninstall McAfee from the Mac products. I do not like so much intrusion and I do not want to be a slave to McAfee.
Any thoughts?
McAfee has always pursued an aggressive marketing style. It used to be included in Acrobat Reader, and many other useful downloads, unless you unchecked the box.
John McAfee was a colorful characterr at best.. I can't imagine why his old company would behave any better in the hands of pirate equity.
There are so many other AV options, but these day I just roll with whatever Windows has. Maybe I've been invaded by a sinister bot net, but I doubt it.
I use Privacy Badger on Firefox for the browsing experience.
I have never had any problems with Apple operating systems. Linux is also reasonably safe. I install it on used laptops I buy from eBay.
While McAfee name has lingered, late John McAfee (1945-2021; died by suicide in a Spanish prison) wasn't involved after 1994 - almost 30 years ago. Its owners since have been Network Associates, Intel/INTC, for a short while MCFE was listed on Nasdaq but was eventually delisted, and is now owned by Advent International, a private-equity firm.
John McAfee was indeed a colorful guy and he often expressed frustration on why his name was still being used in a product that he was no longer associated with. Apparently, he didn't protect the rights to use his name, and companies owning McAfee may have thought that any publicity (good, bad, weird) was good publicity - they could tell people in private that the product McAfee had nothing to do with that wild and crazy guy (apologies to Steve Martin).
Does security features in an OS translate into prevention of virus and malware being implanted in your device? If not, what are the means thru which these things get into my device? I am starting to use mobile Apps on occasion to access financial institutions.
Comments
I can see why you posted here with your question, but this section was originally designed to ask technical questions regarding the actual operation of the MFO website. It was mostly used in the early days of MFO when we weren't quite sure about how do do things.
Your question is interesting, but the odds of anyone giving an answer here are almost nonexistent. I strongly recommend that you change the category to Off-Topic. That's where we generally talk about things that are not directly related to investments. OT doesn't get all that much attention, but it will surely be better than here, and a number of the folks who frequent the OT arena might be able to help on this. I'd also be interested in any info on this.
OJ
Off-topic posts are NOT shown in MFO Discussions.
When starting a new post, above 5 areas are offered for post selection.
I saw @BaluBalu's post in MFO Discussions (here).
FREE DOWNLOAD button is at the top-right of the screen.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/
Avira antivirus:
https://www.avira.com/en/free-antivirus-windows
https://www.avira.com/en/free-antivirus-mac
That's true, but some of those categories (areas) will only populate outside their original category if there is one or more comments to the original post. Trust me- this goes back many years to work around a poster named "Ted". Long story. Also a very dull long story.
I used Malwarebytes for a few years. I do not recall if I used their paid version but my then computer became increasingly slow after. Then I tried McAfee paid version and not sure what all it cleaned from my computer but the computer functioned normally. Ever since I paid for McAfee.
Last night, I renewed my McAfee license by upgrading it to McAfee+ Premium to a new two year subscription for $35 / yr (unlimited devices) - I use it only on one device. I can add McAfee to any iPad I buy from backmarket.com. I am completely computer technology ignorant and hence, the extra caution expressed in the OP.
Thanks for the laugh, Derf
twice3 times.The first time I bought it, I had no problem.
The second time, they sent me a demo phone by mistake, and it didn't work. I got the money back and ordered the third time and got a good one.
We have had them for several months, and they are great.
I know you are an IT specialist. So, your practices with these purchases are good enough for me.
I was planning to buy an iPad from this site to gift to someone else and so I want to make sure I inadvertently do not harm them.
Thanks
I use Brave as my browser everywhere (phone, laptop, tablet). I don't use any antivirus on the phone and tablet.
The only one I
worryabout is the laptop, Windows 11 MSFT defender is pretty good.Years ago I used the free AVG antivirus, but Defender is pretty good, and I got rid of AVG.
In over 30 years I had one virus, which CCleaner killed in 2 minutes. It was at least 10 years ago.
I never found viruses on Android.
Backmarket.com got good reviews. They also give you a limited warranty that lasts for twelve (12) months, starting on the date the product is delivered to the buyer.
I recently helped my daughter buy an HP EliteBook 845 G7 for 229$ on ebay. The same model starts at 539$ on backmarket, and there is only one other choice. EBay certified models start at 249.00$ and there are many more choices.
All that being said, I wouldn't worry about malware on refurbished devices from a site like that. The main things to worry about are the accuracy of description of the condition and how well it is packed for shipment.
Nasty scratches, dead pixels, gummy keyboards are a real drag as are shattered screen due to poor packaging.
Don't go shopping on Craig's List.
What are you in the market for?
I would not recommend buying used Apple products. Speaking as a former seller of e-recycled tech, we could charge more, but there was also a higher rate of returns and complaints with used Apple products. It was a common topic of conversation whenever I met people in that line. As a first-line e-recycler it was often easier to sell items in bulk to people willing to deal with the peculiar headaches of Apple gear and Apple users.
I still occasionally need to run some ancient programs (those came before "apps", remember?), so on my main setup I have a kvm switch that allows me to use Monterey and El Capitan minis, and even my ancient G5 emulating OS9. Believe it or not they can all see each other on the local ethernet, and transfer those files which are compatible between them.
@Old_Joe, I am so technologically challenged, your post was Greek and Latin to me. I do not need to understand everything; it is comforting to know you guys are here.
@Old_joe's 2014 editions would have been brand new to me. If they can't run the latest OS from Apple I wonder if they can run linux? Silly me. Of course you can.
iMacs were a pain to sell, so I was always happy to find someone local who was willing to take lots of them off my hands.
iPhones and iPads were usually trashed by the time they made it to us. Those could could be bundled by date and model number and sold in lots on eBay to parts buyers.
I certainly sold used Apple products to many people that were perfectly satisfied. It was just my experience that they developed fiddly hardware problems at a higher rate than other manufacturers. But that was just about 15% all-cause issues to 5%. What was more irritating was that it always seemed to be the case that the newer Apple products were less robust and required new sets of cables to connect anything external.
I like iPhones myself. Android always strikes me as some ugly linux desktop from the late 20th century. I look for sellers that have new phones that have recently gone out of production. Even then they don't last nearly as long as the old original iPhone 2G I had for many years.
@BaluBalu, I think you made the right choice for you. As with investing, there is much to be said for the comfort level of the shopping experience for tech.
Another possibility is these were “knock-offs” (fakes) …
I have two small minis stacked on top of an ancient G5 (definitely not "mini"). Each of those computers runs a different Mac Operating System (OS), and they can all be run at the same time. The different operating systems are necessary because I have some very old programs/apps that will not run on the newer Mac Operating Systems. The KVM switch allows instant switching between any of the computers.
It's actually a pretty clunky setup with wires and cables everywhere, but I have the room for it and it works OK for my needs. Not recommended for sane people.
I have used McAfee only on Windows products before and did not install McAfee on my iphone and ipad. After my McAfee subscription renewal last week, somehow McAfee started detecting my Mac products and when I am on my Mac products it kept notifying me via a popup that I need to protect my them with McAfee. I kept ignoring it until this evening all of a sudden an automatic McAfee scan ran on my iphone and it notified me that there is a Trojan on my iphone. So, I downloaded McAfee antivirus on the iphone (I have unlimited licenses as part of the renewed subscription which probably the marketing department did not know) and I asked it to run a scan of the iphone and it turned up nothing. What am I missing?
I think I know how it detected my other devices on which I did not add McAfee. The newer subscription came with a Wi-Fi Scan feature and i think McAfee is able to detect all the devices using the same Wi-Fi router, though I do not run the devices as a network (the devices are not connected via a network).
I do not understand such an aggressive behavior from McAfee, which is currently owned by a group of private equity investors.
Is McAfee really necessary on Mac products?
Do routers get hacked in a way that any device on it can become vulnerable?
I am inclined to turn the Wi-Fi scan off on all devices and then uninstall McAfee from the Mac products. I do not like so much intrusion and I do not want to be a slave to McAfee.
Any thoughts?
A McAfee popup informs that the PC (or phone) is infected and you cannot easily close it or get rid of it.
I got the PC going somehow, ran Windows Defender in Quick Scan, Off-line Scan and Full Scan modes - nothing detected.
Searched the web. Found the McAfee popup spam issue and also the remedy.
So, I looked in Chrome Site Settings and and among the Recent Sites, noted the offending website generating these spam notifications. Deleted it.
I also looked at my cookies list and deleted all cookies with long unfamiliar URLs.
Since the 1st episode, I have had repeat episodes. But I now know the routine.
What's in it for the spamming site? May be when people get scared and do signup for McAfee, it gets a cut for directing people there, but I am not sure. This looks like a bad and sneaky way to do business.
At least for Macs, more important are good adblocking software in your browser or home network, which stops a lot of cr*p (both legal and malicious) from being downloaded to your machine in the background.
Windows systems, I don't touch with a 100' pole for anything - both for usability & security/privacy reasons - unless it's for test/research purposes (ie malware, hacking tools, etc, etc.) and run inside a 'sandbox' that can be easily controlled from the outside and/or quickly reconstructed if I bork it up.
Once I install McAfee, I no longer that spam.
I think one of the casualties of relaxed regulations/ enforcement could be a loss of consumer protections. Only if can find a middle ground
I've been using Macs for some thirty years and have never needed McAfee or any other antivirus product. rforno is right- good ad-blocking software is all that you need.
i use the Firefox browser which incorporates ad-blocking software, the DuckDuckGo search engine which does no tracking, and also uBlock as added ad-blocking protection.
John McAfee was a colorful characterr at best.. I can't imagine why his old company would behave any better in the hands of pirate equity.
There are so many other AV options, but these day I just roll with whatever Windows has. Maybe I've been invaded by a sinister bot net, but I doubt it.
I use Privacy Badger on Firefox for the browsing experience.
I have never had any problems with Apple operating systems. Linux is also reasonably safe. I install it on used laptops I buy from eBay.
John McAfee was indeed a colorful guy and he often expressed frustration on why his name was still being used in a product that he was no longer associated with. Apparently, he didn't protect the rights to use his name, and companies owning McAfee may have thought that any publicity (good, bad, weird) was good publicity - they could tell people in private that the product McAfee had nothing to do with that wild and crazy guy (apologies to Steve Martin).
Does security features in an OS translate into prevention of virus and malware being implanted in your device? If not, what are the means thru which these things get into my device? I am starting to use mobile Apps on occasion to access financial institutions.