[Stouch]

Dude, if its any consolation we went through the same process with a guy that we think was trying to scam us. We had all the same conversations and eventually we came to the conclusion he was wanting us to turn the security off (worked that out after we got the same words from another name/email). It also coincided with a particularly hefty brute force attack. Too many coincidences and needless to say he got his money back too.

We had all the same possible diagnoses with Norton etc and in the end we just think he was trying it on.

Dont worry yourself with it, its going to happen and you just have to chalk it up to experience.