“Access to this PC has been blocked for security reasons” — DO NOT CLICK ON IT OR CALL THE #

If this happens to you—your entire computer screen is taken over with these “windows” while blaring a message to call the number—DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT click anywhere on the screen or call the number.

Here’s the fix.

For PCs:

1. Open the “Task Manager” by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
2. Find your web browser’s icon (in this case, Google Chrome) and click to highlight. Then click on the End Task button.
3. Your browser window (along with this crazy-making message) should now close. When you reopen your browser, do not allow the browser to open the last opened page.

For Macs:

1. Open the “Force Quit” application window by pressing the Command + Option + Escape keys together.
2. In the “Force Quit”, click on the browser that you’re seeing the tech support scam page.
3. Click the button that says “Force Quit“. This will forcefully end your browser and close this tech support scam page.
   If you can’t switch from the unresponsive app, press Command + Option + Shift + Esc for 3 seconds to force it to quit. This will force-quit the front-most app. Or if you are using Safari or any other browser, disconnect your Internet, then open the web browser, navigate away from the malicious web page and then reconnect to the Internet.

This is an oldie but a goodie scam that pretends to be from Microsoft or Apple to trick you into thinking that your computer has crashed or that a virus has been detected. It does this to try and scare you into calling one of the listed numbers to receive support. The scammers want to get control of your PC.

As soon as you click anywhere on this, your PC will become corrupted. Then these lovely human beings will require you to pay to have them fix it. Annnnddddd… Of course, they won’t.

If you call any of the phone numbers, you will be asked to install a program that gives them remote access to your computer. Using that, they will then proceed to trick you into paying for “support” services and/or collect and steal personal information, passwords, credit card info, etc.

Oh, and why do I know how to fix this? My elderly mother faced this a while back. Andrew was today’s victim. And since I am the computer tech support around here… Anyway, all’s well that ends well.