Don’t Fall For This Scam! Here’s How To Protect Yourself For Free!

In order for all scams to work they need to keep evolving, in order to fool the unsuspecting victims that are targeted. Here is the latest wrinkle in the old tech-support scam. Tech-support scammers have developed a new trick to freeze browsers on a bogus security alert with a phone number to a fake support line.

The ultimate goal of the freeze is to cause stress to lots of potential victims in the hope some will call the bogus hotline offered in the alert.

Previously, tech-support scams have used pop-under windows, pop-up loops, and other shady techniques that aim to prevent users from closing the bogus security alert page. Scammers frequently use malicious ads to nudge browser users to booby-trapped webpages that freeze the browser.

A new technique found by researchers at Malwarebytes targets the current version of Chrome, 64.0.3282.140, on Windows. This scam works by instructing the browser to rapidly download thousands of files from the web, which quickly results in Chrome becoming unresponsive and makes it impossible to close tabs or the window by clicking the X button.

But users don't have to pay big money to stay protected from the tech-support scam. You can simply use a free add-on browser ad-blocker.

If you DO happen to fall victim to the scam and can't 'x' out of the screens you can escape them by going to the Windows Task Manager and force quitting the offending browser processes.

Chrome is often targeted because of its huge number of users, making it ideal for indiscriminate and widespread attacks that are usually delivered by malicious ads.