IMMEDIATE HELP please..... Critical Alert pop ups today

Hi, I'm Anvar, I'd be glad to help you today on this

It is a SCAM, Microsoft will never proactively reach out to you to provide unsolicited PC or technical support. If you receive a phone call claiming to be from Microsoft, or see a pop-up window on your PC with a fake warning message and a phone number to call and get your “issue” fixed, it’s better to be safe and not click any links or provide any personal information.

Never call the number provided in the error message. Real Microsoft error messages never include a phone number to call.

Simply restart computer to get rid of the message and also suggested to clear cache from your browser

Hope this helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

Popup messages containing phone numbers are never from Microsoft or any other valid company, they simply don't operate in such a threatening manner and never provide phones numbers to call, since they do all business via computer and your online account. If it has a phone number, it's fake.

What you experienced is called a 'Tech Support Scam' and Microsoft provides the following information to help you understand these better.

Protect yourself from tech support scams - Microsoft Support

Since you fortunately were unable to pay their ransom for returning use of your device, you've managed to avoid the need to contact your bank to reverse any charges, but obviously you should not pay them anything for their abuse of your good nature.

However, since you've now provided them with your phone number, they have another form of contact they will first try to use themselves to get you to pay for their [fake] 'service'. Once they determine you aren't actually going to pay, they'll likely also sell this information to other scammers who'll badger you with calls for other scams.

I tell you this last portion not to scare you but prepare you for what likely may come next. What you need to know is that engaging with the scammers and try to get them to stop won't work, they'll believe they have an easy target and continue to try and get more from you until they're certain this won't occur.

What I want you to realize from that last part is that the only way to stop these is to either block the scammer's calls or emails if you gave them that contact method as well, and if they still manage to reach you via new numbers, the only thing you should do is hang up or put their messages in your junk folder. Engaging with them in any way, including yelling at or abusing them on the phone just proves you're willing to engage, so if you don't manage to avoid their call in the first place, hang up the moment you realize who and what they really are.

If you need any additional help removing whatever software they installed on your machine already, either ask in this thread or start another here that specifies what type of aid you truly need.

Rob

Many thanks for your helpful advice.

Though those apps all sound either useful or OK based on their titles, the only problem is we don't know whether they're modified versions created by the scammers to affect your PC in some way.

If your device or phone are a Samsung then that app may be reasonable, but if not, I'd definitely remove that app. It may not be surprising that these apps installed on that day if as you mentioned the computer was new and the simple act of initially connecting your phone to the computer may have caused that app to automatically install. but you'd probably remember if that had happened.

From your description, I suspect that the scammers were some sort of actual tech support group that makes money by getting people to call using these fake messages and then installs a bunch of relatively useless and free items to show they've provided a valid 'service' for what they charge.

Unfortunately, we can't be sure they haven't done other things to your device, including grabbing passwords or installing software that grabs personal information. Some will tell you to completely reinstall the operating system to ensure you're safe, but that's really up to you and what you feel the risk in your case might truly be.

Since you can't get the money back without trying to get the scammers to return it (again they're at least this, since they tricked you out of a high fee for 'services' of minimal value), it's probably best to just write this off as a loss and remember never to fall for such a scam again.

Rob

Many thanks for your helpful advice