About a few weeks ago I had a client who emailed me to say his partner’s web browser was locked up and there was a popup that was preventing him from closing the browser tab. He took a screen shot so that he could show me. It was low resolution but it was something I had seen before. It had happened to me.

What happened was I had gone to a compromised webpage that redirected me to the hackers website.

It looks very official but it is trying to trick you into thinking it is Microsoft’s own website. But if you look a the URL at the top of the screen then the illusion is shattered.

I can say with certainty that you have not landed on Microsoft.com. At this point if you can’t close the tab you may have to shut down the browser. The ultimate goal is to try to get you to call the phone number and get information and a credit card number from you.

If you are worried about viruses and spyware you should install software such as AVG Antivirus and Spybot Search and Destroy. They are free to use.