I went into the office to use my PC and it had a page covering the screen advising me to STOP or my PC would eventually crash! I tried everything I knew of to erase or make my computer usable again, unplugged it, etc. I finally called the 800 number on the page. I knew it would be a scam and when money was mentioned, I hung up. Then, since I bought the PC at Best Buy where they have the Geek Squad, I called them. I have a two year warrantee that includes the Geek Squad. I talked an agent there who explained that they call what happened to me "Scareware" and, yes, it was a scam!
Then he advised on how to clear my PC. At the same time, you need to push down on three keys; CTRL, ALT and DELETE all at once. That should clear your computer back to how it was! He then went on to make sure everything on my PC worked. This just a THRIFTY tip to my fellow Thriftyfun readers! Hope it helps you!
Editors Note: On PCs running Windows, Ctrl-Alt-Delete brings up the security options screen and allows you to access the Task Manager. If you are worried about a message you see on the computer, it is a good idea to get a second opinion from somebody at Best Buy or Staples.
Don't ever give somebody your credit card info over the phone unless you are sure they are reputable.
Source: Best Buys Geek Squad
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I work in a school. We have an IT team and they give the same advice. When we press control + alt + delete we were told to go to the Task Manager and to stop the page
I once did the seemingly proper thing and ended up losing my computer for 10 days.
I had just sent a package. So two days later when I got an email from the USPS that my package had been lost, I opened it. Yep, you guessed it.
The 'Ctrl-Alt-Delete' is good to know and will often get you out of a jam. It has worked for me.
The last virus I had, (many years ago), had complete control of my computer. I could not even use Ctrl-Alt-Delete. There was no key I could touch that did not bring up the virus page.
I had programs on my computer which would remove the virus but the virus would not let me access them. I quickly got rid of this virus. It cost me nothing.
I keep a bootable copy of Ubuntu (though it could be any Linux operating system) on a thumb drive. I booted to Ubuntu. The virus was not written to have any interactions with Ubuntu. I was able to use Ubuntu to set Windows back to a time before the virus attack.
Ubuntu is free. The thumb drive about 4 dollars. Saved me no telling how many hundreds of dollars. I wont be without a bootable copy of Ubuntu.
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