Yesterday I left my computer for a
while to attend to my laundry and when I came back the entire screen
was filled with a message purporting to be from the police. It
informed me that I´d been caught visiting illegal websites and that
access to my computer was being denied until I´d paid a fine of
€100. Even if I hadn´t heard of this nasty malware I´d have
realised immediately that it was a scam but it was still quite a
shock to suddenly be denied access to my computer. I was totally
perplexed about how to deal with it until it occurred to me to simply
switch off the computer and immediately switch it on again. This
prompted Windows to offer me the option of running it in safe mode in
which I had access to all my programmes but no access to the Internet
so I was able to run a malware scan. Sure enough, 3 items were
detected and deleted and after I´d restarted Windows things were
back to normal again. I´m no computer expert and there´s probably
another way of dealing with this pest but it worked for me. If you
don´t already have Malwarebytes I suggest you install it
immediately. You can download a free version here:
www.malwarebytes.org/
1 day ago
Excellent public service announcement. :o) You did exactly the right thing. Another way to tell when a pop-up or email is probably malware or phishing is that the authors usually can't spell. It always makes me laugh. If they're going to try to scam me out of thousands of dollars at least learn how to spell.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you were able to bypass a computer catastrophe! I don't understand what these people that create viruses and malware think they are going to prove. jerks.
ReplyDeleteI can only assume these people have nothing better to do with their time...they need to get a life and leave the rest of us alone. Glad you are so wise and aware!
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