Creative approach to an old scam

[woody06]

We've probably all received at least one call from the folks at "Windows". You know the ones I mean. They have heavy accents and advise us that our computer has reported a problem and they can fix it if we give them access and pay a fee. They can be very persistent and sometimes the only way to get rid of them is to hang up.

Today I was online and suddenly the screen left the website I was on and displayed a Microsoft type background with a message indicating they had detected a problem with my computer, "error # 36585476b154685. I was advised to not attempt any corrective action, and to call (888) 256-8125 so one of their engineers could talk me through a "fix".

Being somewhat suspicious I called Microsoft to see if this was legit. It isn't. But it was a lot easier to handle than their darned phone calls.

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[Hawaiian]

This has happened to me in Firefox. I had to use Ctrl/Alt/Delete to pull up the task manager and close the browser. It hit my wife using MS Edge and changed her home page to the message so you could not delete it. I had to go to MS Edge settings without opening the browser and clear the history to get rid of it.

 

[Larrytpdx]

This has happened to me in Firefox. I had to use Ctrl/Alt/Delete to pull up the task manager and close the browser. It hit my wife using MS Edge and changed her home page to the message so you could not delete it. I had to go to MS Edge settings without opening the browser and clear the history to get rid of it.

Have had the same thing in Edge also. Closed with Task Mgr and deleted cookies to get rid of it. Then ran Malwarebytes which found and removed registry entries also. Haven't had the problem with Firefox yet.

 

[Goosebrown]

These are the people that need to be hunted down and given horrific wedgies

 

[mjbskwim]

Haha I was thinking of getting a new tower,since I am just on my iPhone.
Maybe I will wait till I can get an iPad

 

[etrain16]

We've probably all received at least one call from the folks at "Windows". You know the ones I mean. They have heavy accents and advise us that our computer has reported a problem and they can fix it if we give them access and pay a fee. They can be very persistent and sometimes the only way to get rid of them is to hang up.

Today I was online and suddenly the screen left the website I was on and displayed a Microsoft type background with a message indicating they had detected a problem with my computer, "error # 36585476b154685. I was advised to not attempt any corrective action, and to call (888) 256-8125 so one of their engineers could talk me through a "fix".

Being somewhat suspicious I called Microsoft to see if this was legit. It isn't. But it was a lot easier to handle than their darned phone calls.

Just curious, were you on this website when that happened? I've been having similar things happen, but only when I'm on this website - no other website.

 

[Larrytpdx]

Just curious, were you on this website when that happened? I've been having similar things happen, but only when I'm on this website - no other website.

Speaking for myself I have never had any malware issues on this site.

 

[etrain16]

Speaking for myself I have never had any malware issues on this site.

Neither have I. I didn't think much about it until I saw this thread, and it sounded similar to what I've been seeing occasionally. Odd that in my case it's only happening on this site, and only when I'm on my laptop, not on any other device.

 

[Stomper]

This is what happens when you visit those "naughty" websites, y'all....

 

[etrain16]

This is what happens when you visit those "naughty" websites, 'all....

You mean, like the "AK Files"?

 

[Larrytpdx]

This is what happens when you visit those "naughty" websites, 'all....

Word!

 

[Stomper]

You mean, like the "AK Files"?

HEY?!!! This is a decent website for clean-minded folks.... you take that kinda talk out to the street, where it BELONGS!!

 

[etrain16]

HEY?!!! This is a decent website for clean-minded folks.... you take that kinda talk out to the street, where it BELONGS!!

At least their guns and girls thread includes AK's!!!!

 

[Stomper]

And the Lord saw that the man was alone and it was not good, so on the 8th day the Lord made the AK! The next day the Lord took a rib from Adam and made a loud-speaker out of it.



Can I get a HELL YEAH!!

 

[CoastRange57]

They can be very persistent and sometimes the only way to get rid of them is to hang up.

Boom. Problem solved. I hang up on at least 2 telemarketers or scams every day. Easiest solution there is.

This has happened to me in Firefox. I

No surprise there. Firefox and Mozilla has more security holes in it than anything out there, and makes its free open source code a target for even rookie teenage hackers.

Haven't had the problem with Firefox yet.

Oh you will. Just wait long enough. I warned some people about using Firefox and one of the snowflakes who liked going to sites where Ingrid and Svetlana performed acrobatic feats managed to infect a machine and take down another machine on the network. I sent them out to some very good techs who had never seen that malware before and were unable to recover anything off either machine.

I have never had a problem on this site, I run two protection programs, Trend and Kaspersky, use Google Chrome for a browser and Google e mail. I am on ebay a lot, and Amazon but have no problems. Going to a lot of random websites with out good protection software will get you right to infection. If you have any connections to any machine or person who likes those Russian porn sites you are going to get hit hard and bad. Even US based porn sites are crawling with bad code.

 

[mjbskwim]

I would doubt any of the upstanding citizens on this site would stoop so low as to look at porn

 

[teflon6string]

Haha I was thinking of getting a new tower,since I am just on my iPhone.
Maybe I will wait till I can get an iPad

I've experienced something similar on my iPhone when surfing on google. A pop-up screen warns me that "this apple device has a virus" and to either contact some BS number or click on a BS link. This is to supposedly "fix the virus" or to avoid punitive action. I do neither because it's a bunch of buffalo dust.

Then, exploiting a new spin, the warning automatically turns into either an email or a text on my phone, ready to send. To whom, I have no idea.

Of course I don't send anything, and I close any pop-up that I wasn't trying to open in the first place. Anyone who believes that warning jive and plays along (or just accidentally hits Send), is providing their email address or phone number at the very least to a computerized scam robot. And who knows what additional info is compromised regarding the device you send it from? Perhaps sending the message/email would automatically include everyone in the contact list on your phone? Possible.

I don't know if iPads have all the same email and message capabilities as my phone. But if they do, I would recommend also simply turning off the BS "warning" page instead of responding in any fashion, even if you're itching to tell the creators how much you'd love to hear them die slowly in a sizzling pool of bacon grease.

Those tricky bastiges...

 

[thorborg]

This has happened to me in Firefox. I had to use Ctrl/Alt/Delete to pull up the task manager and close the browser. It hit my wife using MS Edge and changed her home page to the message so you could not delete it. I had to go to MS Edge settings without opening the browser and clear the history to get rid of it.

Ctrl +Alt +Delete; HUH!
I could have used this a couple of times before when the nasty's took over my screen and I wanted too shut it down, all I could figure to do was unplug it.
It's now written on a post it taped to my monitor.
This old geezer learned something important today, and they say you cant teach--, well, you know the rest.
Thank you kindly

 

[The Heretic]

This is what happens when you visit those "naughty" websites, y'all....

Often, but not always the case - I have been to other supposedly non-"naughty" sites and had the site try to do naughty things. It is more common on porn sites though; I have resolved issues like this for more than one person who didn't know how to fix it, and it was either that they were visiting porn sites, or that they accepted and opened attachments for emails (the latter my mother was very bad about).

A tip: if you are using tabbed browsing (multiple sites open in tabbed windows in the browser), and you can still see the tabs/windows, you can usually grab the tab with the mouse and drag it away from the window. This allows you to close that window without closing the other windows of the browser.

I usually have multiple browser windows open with multiple tabs in each - e.g., on for reading the news, one for this or that hobby, another for FB and so on. I may leave them open for days or even weeks until I get around to finishing an article or reading a forum post. It is very exasperating for me to have to kill a browser instance because it kills all windows.

 

[CountryGent]

These are the people that need to be hunted down and given horrific wedgies

Since that wasn't an option, I have generally played them, eh-hem, "interesting" and loud audio clips over the phone.