Threat Database Adware 'Your Computer Has Been Blocked' Technical Support Scam

'Your Computer Has Been Blocked' Technical Support Scam

The 'Your Computer Has Been Blocked' scenario is often employed in popular technical support tactics. Usually, users are redirected to a specifically crafted website dedicated to propagating the tactic. The tactic may attempt to lock the screen of the computer or simply pretend that this is the case. The cause of the issue will be attributed to non-existent malware threats that are supposedly present on the user's device. The goal is to scare the potential victims into calling the provided telephone number where the fraudsters or their associates will be waiting. To make the fake threat appear more severe, the 'Your Computer Has Been Blocked' technical support tactic often makes completely untrue claims, such as the user accounts or files being compromised and taken by imaginary hackers. To lure the user into a false sense of security, the messages displayed by these tactics almost always pretend to be coming from a legitimate tech company such as Microsoft, Google, etc.

Users encountering the 'Your Computer Has Been Blocked' technical support tactic should, in no case, call the displayed phone numbers. Doing so will expose them to numerous other security risks. The supposed technical support on the other side of the line could pretend to be doing a malware removal using the built-in features of the system's OS and then demand a hefty fee for their 'services.' In other cases, the fraudsters may attempt to extract sensitive private information from the user by employing manipulative social-engineering tricks. The con artist might even request remote access to the computer that they can then abuse to drop actual malware threats such as Trojans or ransomware.

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