Pop-up Messages - Just Say NO

Brian Bondy
I know I’ve written about this before, but as someone I know has just been scammed by this, I will repeat it.

Don’t EVER let anyone take over your computer. The exception to that is if you are married to the person, or the person sprang from your loins.

OK, there are other EXCEPTIONS, like if the person is your support person that you know, personally.

But know this, Microsoft will never, EVER, contact you in any way, especially to tell you that you have a virus or malware. NOBODY will ever legitimately contact you and tell you to call a number so they can fix your computer. That is a lie, do not call that number.

Pop-ups can happen on a PC or a Mac. They are designed to play on your fears. One person I know had a pop-up that included her picture, taken off her web cam. It claimed she had been looking at porn and would be arrested by a federal marshal if she did not pay the fine, and to please call the FBI at the number provided.

It was, of course, fake. Scary perhaps, but also completely fake. Again, the FBI won’t send you a pop-up message threatening a fine or arrest. Neither will the IRS. That is not how life works, so please, don’t call.

Instead, close the pop-up. If you can’t figure out how, press and hold the power button until your computer shuts off. You  can try just pushing the power button, but it may make your computer sleep, instead of shut down, depending on your settings. Also, you can right click on the task bar, or hit ctrl+alt+del, and select task manager. Go into the processes tab and cancel the pop-up job that is running. It is simply a rogue program that can be ended. If you do give access to your computer, then I don’t know what to tell you. You will have given access to someone that has completely malicious intentions, and may load malware, keystroke tracking software, or just steal all the data on your computer to mine later. If that happens, then run all the scans you know of on your computer.