NFriday Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 When I was checking my email yesterday, I made the mistake of opening up an email that I should have not. After I clicked the email, I read it, and then it said to hit continue. When I did that, I got a very loud message stating that I now had a trojan virus on my computer, and they gave me a number to call that was supposed to be Windows support. The message kept repeating itself, and I did not know what to do because they told me not to shut off my computer, and I was supposed to call up Windows support, who would then walk me through how to deal with it. I called a few people, and out of the two that were home, one did not know what to do, and the other one has a son who I thought might be able to help me. My friend told me that her son was busy, and the message was driving me crazy. I finally called my friend again to see if she could give me the number of a friend of ours who is a computer expert, and she told me that she had left a message on my cell phone telling me that he son said to just turn off my computer. I did that, and when I started it up again, it worked just fine. I tried calling up the number they gave me, and it was not Windows support. I suspect it was some outfit in India that was going to offer me tech support. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErgoProxy Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 Yeah, I recently hit a web page like that. Telling me to call "Microsoft" for support. Telling me not to shut down my computer. I knew it was a scam so the first thing I did was shut down my PC to reboot it as there was no way to stop that fake warning from playing. My PC is working just fine. I get plenty of emails telling me that my PC is infected with viruses. Like how would they know that? Just scams so that they can implant a virus/worm, etc. on your PC and scam you out of money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oshawott Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 It's just a scam, sorta like those "Nigerian prince" scam emails that were so common 10 years ago. It's been years since I got one of those loud fake virus alerts. These days most of the scam emails that I get are ones that claim that my FedEx package needs to be picked up and ask me to input certain information, which I know are fake because I don't even use FedEx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErgoProxy Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 46 minutes ago, Oshawott said: It's just a scam, sorta like those "Nigerian prince" scam emails that were so common 10 years ago. It's been years since I got one of those loud fake virus alerts. These days most of the scam emails that I get are ones that claim that my FedEx package needs to be picked up and ask me to input certain information, which I know are fake because I don't even use FedEx. I still get those emails, mainly variants of them. Sometimes I write back telling them that they must be the 1,000,000th email like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommabear Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 12 hours ago, NFriday said: When I was checking my email yesterday, I made the mistake of opening up an email that I should have not. After I clicked the email, I read it, and then it said to hit continue. When I did that, I got a very loud message stating that I now had a trojan virus on my computer, and they gave me a number to call that was supposed to be Windows support. The message kept repeating itself, and I did not know what to do because they told me not to shut off my computer, and I was supposed to call up Windows support, who would then walk me through how to deal with it. I called a few people, and out of the two that were home, one did not know what to do, and the other one has a son who I thought might be able to help me. My friend told me that her son was busy, and the message was driving me crazy. I finally called my friend again to see if she could give me the number of a friend of ours who is a computer expert, and she told me that she had left a message on my cell phone telling me that he son said to just turn off my computer. I did that, and when I started it up again, it worked just fine. I tried calling up the number they gave me, and it was not Windows support. I suspect it was some outfit in India that was going to offer me tech support. I have gone through that one once or twice and yes, turning off the computer is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommabear Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 4 hours ago, Oshawott said: It's just a scam, sorta like those "Nigerian prince" scam emails that were so common 10 years ago. It's been years since I got one of those loud fake virus alerts. These days most of the scam emails that I get are ones that claim that my FedEx package needs to be picked up and ask me to input certain information, which I know are fake because I don't even use FedEx. I get those also along with USPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnleona Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 Do you just turn off the computer or shut it down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy21 Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 Got sometimes similar some years back. As others have said it's a lousy scam. It didn't work for me to shut down and restart. What DID work was to run Spybot, which I run on my computer weekly. I keep it up to date and it's helped me a few times. It's free but I do send them money when I feel I can. I send maybe $10 or $15 via PayPal, maybe 5 or 6 times a year as it really has helped me and I'm grateful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NFriday Posted February 8 Author Report Share Posted February 8 A friend of mine who has a MAC, says that this never happens on MAC computers, and I should get a MAC. MAC computers are way more expensive that what I paid for my windows computer. Has anybody had a scam like this happen on their MAC computer? At least they would not be able to tell you to contact Windows support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy21 Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 2 hours ago, NFriday said: A friend of mine who has a MAC, says that this never happens on MAC computers, and I should get a MAC. MAC computers are way more expensive that what I paid for my windows computer. Has anybody had a scam like this happen on their MAC computer? At least they would not be able to tell you to contact Windows support. I've repeatedly heard over the years that Apple products are far less vulnerable to scams, viruses. etc. Perhaps it's true? And yes, they are. much more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErgoProxy Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 9 hours ago, Sandy21 said: I've repeatedly heard over the years that Apple products are far less vulnerable to scams, viruses. etc. Perhaps it's true? And yes, they are. much more expensive. Well, Apple doesn't get attacked so much by viruses, but that has nothing to do with scams. Scams don't matter as to what kind of computer product you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy21 Posted February 8 Report Share Posted February 8 5 hours ago, ErgoProxy said: Well, Apple doesn't get attacked so much by viruses, but that has nothing to do with scams. Scams don't matter as to what kind of computer product you have. I could be wrong, but I understand if you mistakenly click on something, an Apple product is much less prone to allow an attack than a windows product as there is a lot more protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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