Have You Had This Happen To You Recently?

So, you’re surfing the web, minding your own business, and suddenly a scary warning (like those to the left) takes over your entire screen. WTF? You start asking questions like:

• “How did this happen?”
•  “Is this legitimate?”
•  “Do I have a virus?”
•  “How do I get rid of this?”
•  “Should I call the number on the screen?”
• Etc.

The worst part – there doesn’t seem to be any way to force this thing to go away, all while it’s blurting its hideous warning.

OK, let’s start with the important part – what is it?

Simply put: Scam. It’s a web page you stumbled onto by accident. Perhaps you clicked on a link that looked legitimate or could’ve been caused by misspelling a word when typing it into the browser. (Could be Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or whatever web browser you were using.) So, it’s simply a webpage. The point is to get you to call the number displayed – and the end game is either to sell you services you don’t need (bad) or get your credit card or other financial information (worse).

So, what do you do when this happens?

Start by muting the volume of the computer (hit the F10 key in the top row on your keyboard). It’s hard to think clearly when your computer is making all sorts of noises, and that’s what the scammer wants – to frighten you and quickly resolve the issue. Don’t worry – it’s not a virus! And NEVER call the number!

You’ll notice that you can’t always easily quit the application, as it has gone into “full screen” mode and the Command-Q key (to quit the application) doesn’t always work in this situation.

Then it’s time to “force quit” the application that is causing the grief. Quickest way: Press the COMMAND key and then the TAB key. (You can do that with your left hand.) Doing that will let you scroll between all the applications that are open on your Mac. Land on the FINDER (the blue smiling face), and once you’re there, pull down on the apple (upper left corner of the screen) and select FORCE QUIT.

You’re almost home! Find your web browser in the list (most likely Google Chrome, Safari, or Firefox), highlight it, and smash the FORCE QUIT button in the lower right corner of the window. Whew!