I really hate scammers!  They prey on people through fear and I’ve seen this a lot recently.

Their latest tactic is to design a web page that looks like a virus warning.  Here are some examples:

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So what’s happening – are you infected?!

Nope!

All that is happening is you’re looking at a web page.   Think of it as looking at a Newspaper article that says you have a virus.   Just because it says it on the page, doesn’t mean you actually have one.

The real giveaway here is the telephone number.  Anti Virus companies don’t want you calling them!   Instead what will happen if you call the number is you’ll probably go through to a foreign call center who’ll ask to take control of your PC.  They’ll then show you the logs on your computer which will have lots of critical errors.

Now they’ll really start pushing you and telling you that you’re in trouble.  This it the fear tactic they’ll use to extort money.  In reality, these warnings are for simple things like “your iPod isn’t plugged in” (even if you don’t have one), but without knowing this they can look scary.

 

DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER ON THE SCREEN!

Just close the window.   If you’re still worried (or cant close the window – sometimes they make this difficult), then contact me.   I’ll usually be able to tell you straight away if it’s a scam or not.

If they get access to your computer, you don’t know what they’ll be installing or reading when you’re not watching.   And then they’ll charge you even more to fix what “they” put on there to cause problems.