“For security reasons, the device was blocked. “Call Windows Support” is the warning that appears in a pop-up window titled “Windows Defender – Security Center” when surfing the web. In addition, a computer voice also sounds from the speakers, explaining that the user’s credit card details and other personal information have been stolen and forwarded to hackers. The user is not allowed to close the pop-up window under any circumstances, otherwise – according to the threat – the computer will be deactivated by Microsoft. The whole thing then looks something like this:
www.watchlist-internet.at
Of course, Microsoft has nothing to do with it. According to consumer advocates, this is a current scam used by online fraudsters who are trying to encourage users to call a phone number that supposedly calls “Windows Support,” as Watchlist-Internet.at warns. The pop-up window appears when surfing on dubious websites and is intended to cause users to panic.
This phone number displayed on the screen should be on no way consumer advocates warn. To solve the problem, the scammers on the phone try to persuade you to install remote maintenance software and then use it to install malware on your PC. This also gives the fraudsters full control over your computer.
This is how you react correctly
The fake Microsoft alert pops up as a new window in the browser and only makes it appear that it is a notification window. If you try to close this window using the “x”, the warning will open in full screen mode, making the warning appear even more threatening.
You can close this warning by clicking on the “x” in the browser tab bar. If the warning appears in full screen mods, first press the Esc key to exit full screen mode and then press the “x” in the tab where the warning is displayed. If that doesn’t work, you can also close the entire browser or “kill it” using the task manager. The last resort is to restart the entire PC.