You Click, then BOOM! Your Screen is Locked

I’ve been seeing a lot of situations like this lately: Many of my clients will click on a link from an email or a website, and suddenly a warning pops up in their internet browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc).  The message looks something like the image on the left.  On top of it all, the client's screen is now frozen, often with an annoying and repeating audio message.

​Sometimes, the warning looks even more official, with Apple or Microsoft branding on it. Of course, it's a total scam though.  The perpetrators want to scare you into calling their phone number, where a concerned technician will offer to rid you of said viruses.  They will then ask you for access to your computer and proceed to either steal your data or charge you to "fix" the problem.  Or both.  

​In my last blog, I talked about how we sometimes end up with these fake warning messages.  However, today, I want to impart 3 takeaways:

1. Getting this warning message does NOT mean you have an actual virus
2. No legitimate tech support will ever contact you in your internet browser to tell you that you have a virus
3. All you have to do to "unlock" your screen is to quit your browser (command + Q keys on a Mac, or alt + F4 keys in Windows)

I hope this info will save you any future anxiety from such scammers.  If you have any questions about these fake warnings, please feel free contact me.

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