The impromptu push scam
- You are pushing hard to get your 1,000 word long form report out.
- You are fixated on the message you are putting out there.
- Suddenly...BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP~~~~~~~~
- At the loudest setting on your computer.
- You can't turn it off.
- You just want the noise to go away!
- It won't respond to your volume turn down arrows.
- A message says you have a virus and shutting down your machine (your only option) will cause irreparable damage!
- A number is given."free" Microsoft service... Call immediately!
- The "helpdesk" gives you a "package to install to fix the problem immediately!
WHAT YOU DON'T realize is YOU ARE TRADING NOISE FOR INFECTION
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FIX
- Shut it down any way
- Clear your cache
- Be aware of this insidious tactic which is picked up by infected sites on the kinternet
- Watch where you go
Recent Comments
27
Every once in a while, I get the message on my computer that something terrible is happening, and I should call this number or click this button?? My husband told me NEVER to click on ANYTHING and NEVER call the number. I NEVER do either of these and get him immediately! He is a computer techie and knows what to do. One time we even had our screen scrolling extremely fast and totally lost control of everything. He got on and shut the whole thing down in a couple of minutes by working his magic. We don't know how much information they (hackers) got, but he was able to recover everything. He had to spend several days going through the whole computer and backing up everything. One word of caution!! ALWAYS BACKUP all of your information on to a disk, etc. We do this about once a month. That way, if you do lose information, you will have it somewhere else. I have over 20,000 photographs on my computer! My husband has backed all of them up plus everything else on our computer. Also, if you have an older computer, you never know when it will quit. We also have had this happen in the past. Again, luckily, we had everything backed up! Remember: YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL!!
Wow I'm such a green horn when it comes to this stuff. That's just not nice!
Appreciate the heads up.
Hi Michael,
Last year we had something similar it said the same thing "you are being hacked". They gave a toll free number to Microsoft to call immediately. I did and I was very suspicious when a person of a strange accent answered. He said for about $350 Microsoft could fix this. I said no, and they put a lock on the computer.
My local guru was able to get rid of it. You could call that number to track them down, but it is long gone by now.
Never give an unknown person access to your computer, which I stupidly did.
I later had something similar happen again later on, I just shut the computer down and the "bad guys" went away.
Bill
Best buy here is the states had a scam running the same and now one would do anything about it. A few of called the local TV station and they took over and the whole mess ended with fines and jail time.
Hi, Mike,
Destiny is saying....you need a new computer, lol. I know I'm not supposed to laugh, but I can't help it. Ok, I'm good now. Sorry about that.
On a more serious note...it happens and thanks for the recommendation because I know it works.
Never mind me, lol. I have a crazy imagination. ROFL!
Love you to the moon and back.
Becky
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Thanks for the post, Mike! It's not easy to keep up with all of the scams out there. I'm careful where I go online, but I still run antivirus and anti-malware software. :)