In the old days, you could just have a decent antivirus software and stay away from the underbelly of the internet and you would be pretty safe. Unfortunately, the bad guys of the internet are always ramping up their game. A common vector or attack these days is “Scareware”.
Scare is a tactic used to manipulate you into downloading malware, or “purchasing” bogus support services that are basically just a way to give out your credit card number to the thieves.
Scareware usually takes the form of a popup on your computer (sometimes it even takes up the entire screen so there is no way to dismiss it – sometimes it is accompanied by a loud VOICE through the speakers!) whose job it is to frighten you into clicking on a button to “fix” the problem or calling the phone number to talk to the scammer directly. Sometimes they will call you directly on the telephone and try to scare you into letting them access your computer.
They will almost always misrepresent themselves as being “from Microsoft” or “from Norton”, or “from Windows”, and state that “You are sure lucky you called when you did, we can see that your computer is infected and we need to get connected right away to protect you!”
Once you take the bait and let the scammer have access to your computer, they will bring up little-seen system logs as apparent “evidence” that you are badly infected. All of this song and dance inevitably leads to them hawking the solution – for only $299, we can remove your infection and install our software which will keep you from getting infected again.
Once they have your credit card number, the damage is done. They will take their $299 fee, and then let some time pass, and then maybe take that fee again, or even increase the amounts to see what they can get away with. They can surreptitiously install software on your computer that records your keystrokes, looking for other marketable information like credit card numbers, brokerage account passwords, banking information and the like, then collect that to be sold on the dark web.
In reality, the original popup you received that tried to scare you isn’t an infection at all, and most always can be gotten rid of by just turning off your computer and then turning it back on again. As long as you don’t take the bait and click any of their offered buttons or call the phone number, then you are safe and can get on with your life.
Sometimes, the scareware actually gets installed so that it will return after your system is restarted. In this case, you will probably need our help removing the malicious program. Unfortunately, these bad actors prey on older folks insecurity about their computers, and know just the right psychological buttons to push to get them to play along. It’s a sad sign of the world we live in.
If you take nothing else away from this article, know this: Microsoft or Norton or any other recognizable tech company WILL NEVER CALL YOU. They WILL NEVER CONTACT YOU through popups on your computer. If you get a phone call like this, just hang up and they will move onto the next victim. If you get a popup like this on your computer, just turn it off, or unplug it if you have to. If the popup comes back after a restart, then call us to remove it.
Remember, it’s a scary world out there – stay safe!