We’ve been seeing this more and more recently and have even heard from people that have fallen victim to it. What happens is that you are merrily browsing away on your computer when all of a sudden you see something like the image below:
Your computer may even start beeping or talking to you. You better hurry up and call the number and give them some money so they can fix your computer.Yeah, don’t do that. This is a scam. They’ll take your card info and charge you $500+ and then get on your computer and “fix it”. When they “fix it” they can do a variety of things. If you are lucky they’ll just poke around at it and show you some things they claim are from malware, which they’ll “remove” for you and then go away. If you aren’t lucky they will really mess your computer up or infect it with malware themselves. If you see this happen to you, then just close your web browser, or reboot if you can’t close your browser.Microsoft will NEVER contact you about fixing your computer. If you get a phone call claiming to be from them, it isn’t. If you get a website claiming to be from them, it isn’t. You should never let anyone on your computer that you do not know. You wouldn’t let some stranger that walks up to you on the street mess with your car, so don’t let them mess with your computer either.If you are concerned that you have been compromised, then contact us. We can help you if you have been and work with you to strengthen your cyber-security posture to help prevent it from happening again.