I know we sound like a broken record, but we still get at least two phone calls per week with this one. So, it remains in our nature to continue to inform and educate as best we can. If you are on your computer or mobile phone and a popup comes up that says you have an error or an infection and there is a phone number on there, IT IS A SCAM. DO NOT call the number, just leave the web page, shut down your computer (or phone) if you can’t leave the page, and don’t go back to that page for a couple of days. Your computer/phone isn’t infected, it’s the web page you visited. The next questions are generally “why” and “how” because you just loaded up your email. your game or your news site. Well……
Websites such as Yahoo, Facebook and MSN have ads that load on their pages. These ads can be purposely programmed or accidentally infected with the pop up mentioned above. Because the money these sites make from the ads outweighs the potential security risk to their users or lost revenue from not running the ad, these pop ups remain. The best remedy is to find alternative email, game and news sites that don’t load all the junk these popular sites run. We suggest Gmail for email, Pogo for games and your local news channel for news. Fox, CNN, Forbes and similar sites still load an immense amount of advertisements that include video. They aren’t infected ads, per se, but they are very slow to load and may crash your internet browser.
While the world continues to shrink, and the internet is being more closely regulated, the continued anonymity provides a vast area for criminals. Use caution and be aware of what sites you visit, emails you open, links you click, games you play and information you share.