I had a few minutes to timesink yesterday and was reading stories on Google News. One link leads to another, and before I knew it, I was sucked into a story on 40 little known facts about TV’s most popular situation comedy ever, “I Love Lucy”. What could be more wholesome web viewing?
I rather quickly noticed that the text accompanying the pictures was very poorly written. Words were misspelled and misused with alarming frequency. I was convinced that the writing had been outsourced to an offshore bot that had stolen the content elsewhere on the interwebs.
And then, this happened.
My computer was crazily beeping and there was a fake virus alert displayed on the screen. Of course I took the time to close the browser (despite the false warning that I would not be able to) and make sure that my workstation was not actually infected. Such fun!
A brief Google survey revealed that the call center number displayed, (877) 337-7936, is often connected with malware scam artists. Most of the displayed pages seem to be further attempts to get you to install real malware on your system. Don’t fall for them.
Then I made the call. I was the end user from hell that these cyberpirates deserve. Imagine if Ransomware Inc. got hundreds of calls like this every day? They’d have no time to hold up their other poor victims and their profit margins would take a dive. The obvious annoyance of the Ransomware Agent at about 7 minutes into the call, when he lets out an exasperated “Yeeeeessss”, is priceless.
Remember, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Stay safe online.