 Tech Support Scam Pop-ups
I have been getting more and more calls about these, so even though I've written about this topic in the past, I want to go into more detail here.
How it works: Scam companies send web "spiders" crawling through the internet looking for websites with vulnerabilities they can latch onto. If you land on a compromised website, their scam warning appears as a pop-up ad, just like any legitimate ad would appear. However,
their ad is designed to take over your entire screen and broadcast a very scary warning that you are infected with a virus and MUST CALL NOW. They are good at writing these ads, which are very convincing.
What to do:
DON'T CALL THE NUMBER! Your first defense is to just close your browser, but they don't make that easy. Follow these steps:
| PC |
press the ctl-alt-del keys simultaneously
choose "task manager"
click on your web browser
choose "end task" |
| PC (alternative technique) |
look on task bar for an icon for your browser
right-click on it
choose "close window" |
| Mac |
click on "finder", typically in the bottom left
click on the Apple menu in the upper left
choose "force quit"
click on your browser and click on "quit" |
If this doesn't do the trick, or you can't follow the steps -
call me, and I will walk you though the process. I may have to come for a service call, but often I can just clear it up over the phone.
Remember, at this point it's the website that is infected, NOT your computer!
What happens if you call them: A professional scam artist will tell you that they need to log onto your computer to "fix the problems".
Once they do that all bets are off. They might just be trying to sell you unneeded services, or they might install
malicious software to track your keystrokes. They might search your system for passwords and log in information they can steal, and use that to attempt to hack into your accounts.
If you have let them onto your system, you MUST call me or another trusted computer professional to clean your system and create an action plan. So please, be wary of these scams, and shut them down before they can cause any harm!
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