A new scam for us Computer users
@BearArtistLady (6036)
United States
December 20, 2023 4:11pm CST
I was doing my usual computer cruising and suddenly my computer locked up and a notice appeared on my screen that my computer was not able to be used until I called a toll free number that was to Microsoft and they would walk me through getting the computer back to being able to be used.
Alarms went off in my mind, because when they in essence say that I've been hacked, they are fishing for money....especially right now with Christmas looming and also the economy being so tight. I didn't call. The more I thought about it the fishier the whole thing seemed, so I broke out my tablet (thank God I had the presence of mind to get it earlier this year) and entered Microsoft scams and phony Microsoft phone numbers. I got my answer!!!
I was informed to push my ctrl, alt, and delete keys. It would reset my computer back to normal if the item was a scam, if it wasn't then I could trust it. Well I followed the instructions, and you're reading the results. I don't have that much money in my account since it's close to the end of the month, but I sure don't want some unscrupulous, greedy, thieving, SOB stealing what little I have left.
Watch out for this scam, especially if you have security on your computer for this type of thing. Don't fall for the thieves' games.
2 people like this
3 responses
@celticeagle (167071)
• Boise, Idaho
21 Dec
I got that same notification today. Luckily it wasn't too hard to bypass it. I hope it leaves us alone and no one else has to deal with this idiocy.
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
21 Dec
This is such a common scam. I see at least a few people every day who have either gotten the warnings and want to check on how legitimate they are, or they called the number on the screen and the scammers were able to get access to their computer with remote access software.
It's terrible. One of my clients earlier this week had a scammer log into his online banking and then take a cash advance out of his credit card. I think the plan was to follow up by phone and get him to transfer the "mistaken" deposit back to the scammer, but he brought the computer in before that happened and we were able to figure out what had happened and he got his bank to reverse it instead.
Sometimes these things prevent you from closing them with Ctrl-Alt-Del, and if that happens usually you can bypass it by pressing whichever key it is on your computer that takes it out of full screen mode or use Alt-Spacebar and choose Restore from the menu that pops up. It's always just a matter of getting the website to close to get rid of it, though.
