In 2023, consumers filed approximately 52,000 reports with the FTC about scammers impersonating Best Buy or Geek Squad - more than reports involving Amazon (34,000) and PayPal (10,000) combined, making it the most impersonated company in the FTC's data that year. Business impersonation scams as a category generated over 330,000 reports in 2023, with combined reported losses of $1.1 billion. The scam is almost always delivered by email, but the email is rarely the end goal. Understanding what scammers are actually after, and how to stop them before they get it, is what this guide is about.
What Geek Squad scammers actually want
The email is the hook. The real damage happens on the phone.
The most common Geek Squad scam works like this: you receive an email claiming that a Geek Squad subscription has just been renewed and a charge has been applied to your account, typically between $300 and $500. The email includes a phone number to "cancel" the charge or "dispute" the transaction. That number does not reach Best Buy. It reaches a scammer.
One immediate tell: the real Geek Squad subscription ("My Best Buy Total") costs $179.99 per year. Any renewal email claiming a charge of $300 or more is not a Geek Squad bill. It is a fabrication designed to create enough alarm that you pick up the phone.
Once you call, the person impersonating a Geek Squad agent uses one of two approaches. They either walk you through steps to "process a refund," during which they ask for your banking details directly, or they persuade you to install remote access software such as AnyDesk or TeamViewer, which lets them take control of your device. Once they have remote access, they can access your banking apps, steal credentials, transfer funds, or harvest personal data at will. The email was just the entry point.
In a case documented by the Ada County Sheriff's Office, a victim received an email appearing to be from Geek Squad and was then walked through a fake refund process. The scammer claimed there had been an accidental $20,000 deposit into the victim's account and instructed them to transfer the money back. No such deposit existed. The victim lost the transferred amount.
This is worth understanding before anything else, because it changes how you respond. You do not need to prove the email is fake before ignoring the phone number in it. The right response is simply: never call a phone number in an unexpected email, regardless of how real the email looks.
Common types of Geek Squad scams
The renewal invoice scam described above is the most common, but scammers use the Geek Squad name in several overlapping ways:
Renewal invoice fraud: A fake invoice claims your Geek Squad plan has been renewed and a large charge applied. You are directed to a phone number to dispute it. The number goes to a scammer, not Best Buy.
Tech support impersonation: A caller or email claims your device has a security problem and that a Geek Squad technician needs remote access to fix it. Granting that access hands control of your device to a criminal.
Membership cancellation pressure: Scammers insist you are enrolled in a Geek Squad membership you never signed up for and pressure you to provide payment details to cancel it.
Refund processing fraud: A message claims a refund is owed to you and directs you to a website or phone number to claim it. The site is a data-harvesting page; the phone number is a scammer.
Phishing links and attachments: Some emails contain links to convincing fake Best Buy login pages that capture your credentials, or attachments containing malware that activates when opened.
How to spot a fake Geek Squad email
Check how the email addresses you. Geek Squad communications use your full name. An email that opens with "Dear Customer," "Dear Sir," or "Dear User" was not sent by Geek Squad. Scammers sending bulk emails do not have your name.
Do not trust the sender address alone. Scammers can spoof a sender address so it appears to come from @bestbuy.com. The display name is not a reliable signal. A convincing sender address combined with suspicious content still means the email is likely fraudulent.
Be suspicious of any unexpected charge, especially above $179.99. The real Geek Squad subscription costs $179.99 per year. Fake renewal emails typically claim $300–$500. If you have no active Geek Squad plan, any invoice is fraudulent. If you do have a plan, verify the charge by logging into bestbuy.com directly, not through any link in the email.
Never call a phone number provided in the email. This is the single most important rule. The phone number in the email is the scam. If you want to contact Best Buy, use the number on their official website or in your existing account documentation only.
Do not open unexpected attachments. Even PDF files can carry malware. If you were not expecting a document from Best Buy, do not open it.
Hover before you click any link. Hovering over a link (without clicking) reveals its actual destination. If the URL does not go to bestbuy.com or geeksquad.com, it is not legitimate. You can also paste any suspicious link into ScamInfo's ScamCheck Validator, which analyses it for fraud indicators without requiring you to visit the site yourself.
What to do if you receive a suspicious Geek Squad email
Do not call the number and do not click any links. Forward the email to abuse@bestbuy.com so Best Buy's fraud team can investigate, then mark it as spam in your email client.
If you want to verify whether your account has any real charges or renewals, log in to Best Buy directly at bestbuy.com by typing the address into your browser. If there is nothing visible in your account notifications, the email is fraudulent.
If the email included a phone number and you are unsure whether it is legitimate, you can check it through ScamInfo's Phone Number Checker before calling.
What to do if you already called the number
The urgency of your next steps depends on what happened during the call.
If you gave them bank account or card details: Call your bank immediately. Explain that you may have provided your details to a scammer and ask them to freeze the account or card and dispute any unauthorised transactions. The sooner you call, the more options your bank has.
If you installed any software at their request: This is the most serious scenario. Software such as AnyDesk, TeamViewer, or QuickSupport gave them direct access to your device. Disconnect from the internet immediately, then run a full malware scan. Change the passwords for your email, banking accounts, and any other services you were logged into on that device. If you are not confident the device is clean after scanning, a factory reset is the safest option. Notify your bank regardless of whether money has moved, since the scammer may have observed account details during the session.
If you only spoke with them and gave nothing away: Change your passwords as a precaution, particularly for email and financial accounts, and monitor your bank statements for unusual activity over the following weeks.
How to report a Geek Squad scam
Reporting takes under 15 minutes and directly feeds law enforcement databases used to track criminal networks and build prosecutions.
Best Buy fraud team: Forward the email to abuse@bestbuy.com. Best Buy investigates all reports.
FTC: File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. This is the primary consumer fraud intake in the US, shared with hundreds of law enforcement agencies.
FBI IC3: File at ic3.gov if you suffered a financial loss or gave remote access to your device.
Anti-Phishing Working Group: Forward the phishing email to reportphishing@apwg.org.
ScamInfo: Report the scam through ScamInfo's reporting dashboard. Your report helps us protect others and may be picked up by our partner investigation network.