'Windows Product Key Failure' Technical Support Scam

The 'Windows Product Key Failure' technical support scam is a campaign operated by con artists. The 'Windows Product Key Failure' Technical Support Scam is an ongoing campaign to deliver misleading information to PC users and have them call a fake technical support line — 888-335-0661. The 'Windows Product Key Failure' messages may pop-up on compromised sites and PC users infected with adware may be redirected to phishing portals used by the 'Windows Product Key Failure' technical support scam. Browser vendors and AV developers are working continuously to block access to the pages associated with the 'Windows Product Key Failure' technical support scam. Search services providers like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, are battling fake product and services pages that host misleading information constantly. Samples of the messages displayed to users can be found below:

• Sample 1:

'0x000314CE VIRUS_DETECTED_WINDOWS_PENDING_OPERATIONS
Hard Drive Malfunction 5:00
To STOP Data loss Call:
+1-888-335-0661
ERROR 0x000314CE
Hard Drive Malfunction 4:36
Please contact technical support line 1-888-335-0661
To immediately rectify issue and prevent data loss'

• Sample 2:

'Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Support +1-888-335-0661
Windows Product Key Failure !!!!
Please Enter Your Product Key
Windows Defender Prevented an unrecognized and malicious software on your Computer. Please Enter your Windows Product Key. The Product Key should be on a label or the card inside the box that Windows Disk Came in or in the confirmation email you received after buying it. If you have upgraded to Windows 10, you have a digital license instead of a key.
A Product Key is a 25 character code used to activate Windows. It looks like this:
Product Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
[TEXT BOX] [OK|FAKE BUTTON]
Invalid Product Key Detected. Your Windows is blocked for security reasons To Unlock
Call Microsoft Technical Support +1-888-335-0661'

Please, note that the phone line — 888-335-0661 — shown above is likely to be terminated and the team that runs the 'Windows Product Key Failure' technical support scam will register a new one. It is usual for fake security notifications to promote toll-free phone lines and feature a pop-up loop, which is a Web page code that prevents users from closing any message shown on the page. In this case, the 'Windows Product Key Failure !!!!' and the 'Hard Drive Malfunction 5:00' pop-ups are likely to remain on your screen unless you terminate the browser's process manually via the Task Manager. PC users are encouraged to report the pages associated with the 'Windows Product Key Failure' technical support scam by using the native report features in their browser of choice. A quick set of instructions for the major browsers can be found below:

• Edge: Open the browser's menu and click 'Send Feedback' then choose 'Report site issue,' enter the URL and add a short explanation about your experience.
• Internet Explorer 11: Click on the gear icon, chose 'Safety' and then click 'Report unsafe site,' in the pop-up window mark the category of the site and complete the CAPTCHA challenge.
• Google Chrome: Click on the three dots icon, mark 'Help' and chose 'Report an issue.' You can include a few sentences as a comment and click 'Send.'
• Mozilla Firefox: Open the browser's menu and navigate to 'Help' (the question mark icon) and click on 'Report Deceptive Site.'
• Opera: Click on the site's badge located in the URL bar and click 'Details' then load the 'Fraud and Malware Protection' tab and click 'Report Site.'