Post by High Priestess on Oct 28, 2018 17:20:25 GMT
So this morning, my Google chrome browser was hijacked by some nefarious criminal enterprise while I was working on it. All of a sudden, a new Google Chrome tab opened and I got a "red screen alert", and a recorded message began playing telling me that a virus had infected my computer and my data was at risk. It said not to turn off the computer, etc. I was unable to close the tab and in fact all of Google Chrome was frozen, I could not close Google Chrome by clicking on the "x" for close. Well of course this is all fake, neither Microsoft nor Google are going to hijack your computer to give you a "security alert." The popup red screen contained a message with some spelling errors in basic words, a clear sign of a criminal organization operating in another country.
The screen gave a phone number, and insisted that I call them. So if you have this happen and you call the number that the criminal phishing company provides, they will install criminal software on your computer that will REALLY f$#@ it up and then probably ransom you to get your computer back.
Most of the time when my screen is hijacked I just turn off the computer and that solves the problem. Not this time. I turned it off and on a few times and the damn criminal recorded voice kept playing and my Google chrome was still stuck on their damn red screen phishing page.
Finally I figured out how to close down this screen, in a rather random way, and wanted to share this with others in case this happens to you.
I just pushed the "home" button at the far upper left corner of my keyboard, the button that looks like a little house. This button may not be on all keyboards -- it's above the escape button (ESC button didn't help) and clicking it took me back to a "clean" version of my Google Chrome browser.
There are articles online about how to escape hijacked screens:
www.denverpost.com/2017/09/04/annoying-ads-internet-browser-shut-down/
www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2201430/removing-browser-hijackers-firefox-chrome.html
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_defender-protect_start/hijacked-by-red-screen/1eedfeb8-3ee8-46da-b99b-f282c703a850
malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-tech-support-scam-popups/
I think if you search under "hijacked browser" you can find more articles on this matter.
The screen gave a phone number, and insisted that I call them. So if you have this happen and you call the number that the criminal phishing company provides, they will install criminal software on your computer that will REALLY f$#@ it up and then probably ransom you to get your computer back.
Most of the time when my screen is hijacked I just turn off the computer and that solves the problem. Not this time. I turned it off and on a few times and the damn criminal recorded voice kept playing and my Google chrome was still stuck on their damn red screen phishing page.
Finally I figured out how to close down this screen, in a rather random way, and wanted to share this with others in case this happens to you.
I just pushed the "home" button at the far upper left corner of my keyboard, the button that looks like a little house. This button may not be on all keyboards -- it's above the escape button (ESC button didn't help) and clicking it took me back to a "clean" version of my Google Chrome browser.
There are articles online about how to escape hijacked screens:
www.denverpost.com/2017/09/04/annoying-ads-internet-browser-shut-down/
www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2201430/removing-browser-hijackers-firefox-chrome.html
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_defender-protect_start/hijacked-by-red-screen/1eedfeb8-3ee8-46da-b99b-f282c703a850
malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-tech-support-scam-popups/
I think if you search under "hijacked browser" you can find more articles on this matter.