Now, I want you to trust me for a minute. I need you to sit up straight, pay attention, and repeat after me. Ready…
“MY COMPUTER WILL NEVER ASK ME TO CALL A PHONE NUMBER”
Got that? Let’s do it one more time anyway. Ready, set, GO…
“MY COMPUTER WILL NEVER ASK ME TO CALL A PHONE NUMBER”
It won’t, trust me. If a message pops up on your screen telling you Microsoft or Apple has detected viruses, or hardware problems, or the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa living on your hard drive, I guarantee it is not true. This is one of the latest, and unfortunately very lucrative, scams designed to separate money from your bank account.
As I recently said the bad guys have little else to do except think of ways to dig into your pockets. They come up with new stuff faster than we can warn everyone. Their latest hack goes like this –
You are using Internet Explorer, or Chrome, or Firefox to cruise around on the Internet. All of a sudden a message takes over your whole screen, and sometimes a siren even goes off. Yep, seriously. The message is usually bright red and says something to make it sound like the fate of the free world rests on your shoulders and will be determined by the next step you take. It will say something like “MICROSOFT (or Apple) HAS DETECTED A VIRUS (or attack, or spiders) ON YOUR COMPUTER – CALL RIGHT AWAY” and will include a phone number. A big, easy to read phone number. Which is very convenient, isn’t it…
DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER.
Having a web page open full screen on your computer with some terrifying message is brilliant. You won’t be able to close it, and very often a loud noise will come from the computer as well. If that happens you’re going to want to do whatever you can to make it stop. But, if you call that number you will get some guy with a heavy accent who of course wants to help you for the low, low price of $300. Since the message says Microsoft (or Apple) people are far too quick to trust the guy on the other end of the call and hand over their credit cards. They’ll give them remote access to their computer too.
These guys are out to get your money, nothing more. They will make it appear that they are fixing something, and will even install little apps and extensions that look like tools. They flash around the screen while telling you how close you were to digital disaster, popping up windows and clearing your browser’s history. They fix nothing, because there was nothing to fix. The virus warning IS the virus. But, most people wouldn’t know the difference and that’s how these guys get rich.
Getting you to call that number is somewhat like having a guy who repairs glass wrap his business card around a rock and throw it through your window. If that happened you probably wouldn’t pick up the rock, hold up the card and think – Wow, that great timing, I gotta call this guy and get my window fixed. So, one more time –
“MY COMPUTER WILL NEVER ASK ME TO CALL A PHONE NUMBER”
If you find yourself in this position just shut down the computer, wait a minute, and restart it. Don’t click on anything except Start->Shutdown and Restart. Reboot your computer and see if the problem comes back. If you can’t get it to reboot by clicking the Start button, find the power button on the front of your computer and hold it in until the computer shut’s down. Wait 2 minutes and start it back up again. If the message doesn’t come back you’re good to go.
If the message comes back get a computer professional to take a look. Not, of course, the one who’s number is conveniently covering your entire screen. Picture that number on a business card that’s tied to a rock.
