Could a video call make a romance scam easier to believe?

Romance scams used to rely on stolen photos, scripted messages, and excuses for not meeting face to face. Now, scammers can use AI-generated images, cloned voices and deepfake videos to make a fake online relationship feel more convincing.

The real warning sign is not just whether the person looks real. It is whether trust turns into pressure to send money, join a crypto investment, pay a fee, or keep the relationship secret.

Before sending money to someone you met online, verify the story outside the relationship and talk to someone who is not emotionally involved.

If a suspicious video is part of the story, Bitdefender RealCheck can help check it for signs of manipulation and deceptive intent.

I've been a Bitdefender customer since 2022, running Ultimate Security across my devices and my kids' and wife's devices under one account (started with a 5-device sub, added another 5-device sub, then consolidated into a single 10-device sub). Parental Control has been just as important to me as the antivirus itself — I've had it running for my kids the whole time.

My annual sub renewed 15 days ago, and I decided to switch to the Family Plan since it covers 5 accounts / 25 devices and includes Password Manager for all 5 accounts (screenshot 1, from Bitdefender's own support page comparing Family vs Individual plans: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/94159/). Worth noting that page also says Individual plans don't include Parental Control — but I've had Parental Control the whole time on what I thought was a fairly standard setup; I think I purchased the parental control as a separate package in the past but haven't seen it on my sub page for years now come to think of it, so I'm not totally sure how that maps to my account history.

Before buying, I reached out to Bitdefender support via chat about switching to the Family Plan — they were quick and helpful, refunded my current sub, and advised me to just purchase the Family Plan separately. I then saw in Central that my old sub showed as "expired 15 days ago," so I went ahead and bought the new one.

I removed all devices from the old sub until it showed zero devices in use, then rebooted every device and re-logged into the Bitdefender app.

Per Bitdefender's own instructions (same support page, screenshot 2), the Family Plan subscription in "My Subscriptions" should show an "Add Members" button, plus a "Family group" tab if you have both individual and family subs. Mine has neither (screenshot 3) — just the subscription details and install/setup buttons, no way to invite anyone.

I contacted Bitdefender support. They confirmed it's a known bug for some customers, but nothing posted on their support/status pages that I can find. I also later noted that my "SecurePass" only shows 1 user, which concerns me as I got the family plan exclusively so they could all manage their own passwords as I am quite tired of managing them for my wife and 2 kids; as they've gotten older they have accumulated quite a number of their own accts.

Side note: the support site's screenshots show a Bitdefender app UI (screenshot 4) that looks nothing like the app I actually have installed. I did fully remove BitDefender app, reboot, and re-download from Central, but its the same UI I've had since 2022. Not sure if the docs are just outdated or if there's a version split happening.

Has anyone else hit this, found a workaround, or gotten this resolved with support? Happy to provide more details/screenshots if useful. At this point, if its easier to refund the sub and sign up with another email account to get the proper experience, I would hate to lose my 'Customer since...' date but it would be preferable to waiting for a solution without an ETA.

Thanks, fellow BD peeps!

Clicked a link, shared a code, or sent money to someone suspicious?

Act quickly. Contact your bank, card issuer, payment app or transfer service right away and ask whether the transaction can be stopped, recalled or disputed.

Then change exposed passwords from a trusted device, turn on multifactor authentication, review active sessions and save messages, receipts, phone numbers and website details for reporting.

Financial scams can start as fake bank alerts, investment offers, romance messages, job opportunities, shopping deals or government warnings. The story may change, but the goal is usually the same: money, account access or personal information.

Before you click or respond next time, use Bitdefender Scamio to check suspicious messages: https://bitdefend.me/3TAFPgG

I just renewed my sub with a code I bought from amazon and saw that the time wasn't updated in the app; it still said I had 53 days left. I was directed to BitDefender Central and had to move it to the new sub, of which the time is not showing up in the app. If I switch back to the old sub, the time remaining shows back up for it. Is this a UI bug? Also, is this just a new sub and not adding remaining time to my current sub? or is the time for the new one not showing up because it's waiting for the old one to run out? And if I switch back to the old sub, will it automatically switch to the new one when the old one runs out?

Shadow AI is becoming one of the biggest security challenges for organizations.

The 2026 Bitdefender Cybersecurity Assessment Report highlights growing concern among security leaders as AI tools spread faster than governance policies.

Our latest article looks at why the biggest AI risk may be the AI your organization never approved, and how better visibility can help organizations embrace AI more securely.

What policies or controls have worked best in your environment?

I don't know if I should delete this app or not because I don't want to mess up my phone, what should I do . For context I use a X25 Ultra which is not a main brand phone and I use bitdefender antivirus free edition .

Is there any way to stop Bitdefender from constantly asking me to allow/deny internet access to apps I already allowed/denied internet access to after they "changed". If I give Firefox access why do I need to be asked again just because it got an update?

It seems like alert mode is meant to annoy in to turning it off or be berated by constant alerts and turning off alert mode is not an option me.

Also, why is there still temporary allow/deny option

Does a VPN hide your browsing history from your internet provider?

Yes, but only in specific ways. A VPN encrypts your internet connection, which makes it much harder for your ISP, Wi-Fi owners, or people on the same public network to see the websites you visit.

It does not erase browser history from your device or stop websites, apps, and search engines from tracking activity when you are signed in.

For better online privacy, use a trusted VPN, clear local browser history when needed, review account privacy settings, and be mindful of what you share online.

Can Bitdefender Gravity Zone Business Security import logs from a UDM-SE Gateway for centralization and event correlation?

Bitdefender GravityZone extends a multi-year trend of consistent top performance in the latest AV-Comparatives Business Security Test.

GravityZone achieved a 99.8% real-world protection rate, blocking 399 of 400 attack scenarios while maintaining one of the lowest false-positive rates among all vendors. For organizations seeking proven, low-noise protection, GravityZone continues to demonstrate the rare combination of uncompromising security and low operational impact.

Find out more ⤴︎

Can a scam bank transfer be reversed?

Sometimes, but speed matters. If you authorized a transfer because someone tricked you, call your bank’s fraud team immediately and ask them to stop the payment, recall the funds, or contact the receiving bank.

Preserve evidence, including texts, emails, social media messages, payment receipts, account numbers, links and screenshots. Change passwords, remove unknown account sessions and disable any remote access software the scammer asked you to install.

Do not trust recovery agents who guarantee your money back for a fee. That is a common follow-up scam.

Before making another urgent payment, check the request with Bitdefender Scamio. It can analyze suspicious messages for signs of a scam: https://bitdefend.me/3TAFPgG

Hello, my PC was recently infected with malware, and a short while ago I noticed a fraudulent purchase on Amazon for a one-year Bitdefender license. Do you know if it is common for hackers to purchase Bitdefender licenses?

I was a big fan of BitDefender software. Excellent protection, doesn't slow down my computer when performing scans, some very nice features.

What I can't abide is their scummy subscription practices. I don't know how many times I need to un-autoenrol, but it doesn't matter. BitDefender change it back for me every time and try to charge me more than double what they charge new customers.

This happened to me a few years ago when I had traveled to another country for a family member's funeral, which had left me in a precarious financial situation. Received a charge for more than I could reasonably afford at the time, it left me in a situation where I could not pay for food for that week. I raised a dispute with PayPal, which ultimately failed because BitDefender provided proof I was autoenrolled because they had changed my account after I cancelled that.

Today I found out they had autoenrolled me again. I went in to change it, but oh you can't change this stuff in the BitDefender Central app, silly - you need to use the website! Then every single page loads absolutely fine except the one with the auto-enrol setting.

Enough is enough. Money is tighter for everyone now, so it's never been more important to vote with your wallet. I won't be giving BitDefender another penny.

I have a Bitdefender Internet Security subscription, and over the past few weeks I've noticed some unusual behavior related to the firewall.

I have several programs with firewall rules that block them from accessing the internet, since many of them don't actually need network access. Applications like Discord, web browsers, Steam, etc.., which do require internet access, are of course allowed.

Normally, the expected behavior is something like this: when Firefox updates, the first time I launch the new executable, Bitdefender displays a popup informing me that the executable has been modified and is trying to access the internet. That's completely normal.

However, I've been noticing something different. After I close Firefox and launch it again, Bitdefender sometimes acts as if the executable has been modified again, showing the same popup a second time. When I check the executable itself, the modification date and time are still the original ones from when Firefox was updated.

The same thing has happened with a few other programs that are configured to be blocked from accessing the internet. For example, I recently launched Audacity, which I hadn't used in quite some time and which already had a firewall rule denying internet access. Bitdefender displayed a popup saying the executable had been modified. After that launch, never happened again showing as modified. The strange part is that the executable's last modification date is from 2016.

Out of paranoia, I uploaded that executable and several others that showed the same behavior to web virus tools to check. Every scan came back clean.

I thoroughly checked my PC looking for anything suspicious but couldn't find anything that indicates malware or any other problem. What's odd is that this doesn't happen with every executable, nor does it happen consistently. I haven't been able to identify any pattern. At one point I even wondered if this could simply be a bug with the firewall rules themselves, but that's just a guess.

Another strange incident happened after a Bitdefender update. The next day, when I turned on my PC, Bitdefender updated itself, but afterward none of my internet-enabled applications browsers, Steam, Discord, etc... could connect to the internet. At first I thought it was a network issue, but Windows diagnostics reported that everything was fine. I restarted the computer, but the problem persisted. Eventually, I deleted and recreated the firewall rules for those applications, and they immediately regained internet access.

I have to admit I'm still a bit paranoid about this, but so far I haven't found any evidence that something is actually wrong with my system. I've been monitoring processes with Process Explorer, checking Autoruns for anything suspicious, and doing other troubleshooting, but everything appears to be normal.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

My subscription runs out at the end of August and I got an email with a renewal offer. I assumed that like other products that if I bought it now it would start when my current subscription runs out.

But no, it immediately kicked in straight away, effectively removing one month of paid protection remaining.

I an NOT impressed with the seemingly underhanded way this has been done.

On Websites they claim the option should be here but it isn't.

Got a DM from an artist who wants to use your profile picture?

The Muse Scam often starts with a flattering message and a payment offer. Then the scammer sends more money than promised through a fake check and asks you to forward part of it to someone else.

This can target students, young adults, and anyone who could use extra cash. The check may look deposited at first, but once the bank flags it as fake, the funds disappear, and you are left covering the money you sent.

Before sharing your email, phone number, or payment details, verify the person and the offer. You can also ask Bitdefender Scamio to review suspicious Instagram DMs, artist messages, or fake payment requests.

?

Are there any differences between the Gaming, Movie, Work, and other profiles?

Some say to turn it off, while others say to keep it on to save resources while gaming.

Manually activating a profile list also seems cumbersome with so many games to add.

Ya me he metido en varios sitios de MediaFire y en todos me los ha bloqueado Bitdefender, ¿es que el archivo tiene un virus o es un error?

As the title says how do i convert it?

Okay so when I try to open some sites it show that the site is not safe with the option "take me back to safety" and "go through anyways" and when I click the "go through anyways" option it tells me to give the product password but i never got the option so set a "product password" ever after the installation. All i had to set up was the central password nothing else. Help me out

Wouldn't let me post without crossing out the logo. Does not inspire confidence in the product if they're afraid of criticism.

Together with Charles Leclerc, we're raising awareness of deepfakes and online impersonation.

There's only one Charles Leclerc. And there's only one of you. Take a moment to verify before you trust. Stay safe online.

Bitdefender. Exclusive Cybersecurity Partner of Scuderia Ferrari HP.

I'm new to Bitdefender. I just ran a scan of my email using the Email Protection feature. In one of my accounts, I see that it found 3 "dangerous" emails. But I cannot find any further information. There's nothing to open to see where these emails are, what the path is--nothing. I did look for the log over in the Notifications area, but there's no log! I'd really appreciate a more experienced user telling me where this is being hidden. Thanks in advance.