Fake Tech Support
Pop-ups and calls saying your computer is infected, which end with someone connecting to your machine and charging you for it.
What it looks like
- A pop-up that will not close: a virus warning, an alarm sound, a support number.
- A call from someone claiming to be Microsoft, Apple, or your internet provider.
- You are asked to install AnyDesk, TeamViewer or something similar.
How to spot it
- Microsoft, Apple and your bank do not ring you about viruses. None of them. Ever.
- A real virus warning appears in your device's security software, not in a browser tab, and it does not give you a number to call.
- Anyone asking for remote access will see your screen, your files, and any banking session you have open.
- If payment is requested in gift cards, crypto or bank transfer, it is certainly a scam.
What to do
- Do not ring the number. Close the pop-up; if it will not close, quit the browser from the task manager or restart the device.
- Install nothing and share your screen with no one.
- If you are genuinely worried, take the device to a technician you chose.
If it already happened
- If you installed remote-access software, disconnect the device from the internet and uninstall it.
- Change your banking and email passwords from a different device — anything you typed on that machine may have been seen.
- Call your bank and have recent transactions checked.
- Have the device looked at; access software is sometimes left behind deliberately.
Common questions
They connected to my screen but took no money.
Change your passwords anyway. Immediate payment is not always the goal; saved passwords and files can be used later.
I read out a gift card code.
Ring the shop you bought it from straight away. If the code has not been spent it can sometimes be cancelled. Speed genuinely matters here.