Sunday, May 5, 2024 – Don’t be fooled by dangerous fake virus alerts – Paying for Ebay purchases with Western Union

But there’s a danger lurking in the dark corners of the Internet: Fake and malicious malware and spyware apps masquerading as legitimate security apps.

These malicious apps are typically brought to your attention via a pop-up message or some other type of notification claiming malware was found on your system and that you need to install an app (by clicking a link) that will remove it.

While it’s common for a legitimate antivirus/anti-malware app to alert you to the presence of malware on your computer, any notification that didn’t come from the security software that’s already installed on your machine should always be considered fake, and likely malicious.

Think of it this way…

If an app isn’t already installed on your system, how would it know the machine is infected with malware in the first place?

These fake virus alerts typically pop up when you visit a malicious web page, and in many cases the only way to get rid of them is to reboot the machine. And in the most extreme cases the alert pops back up again as soon as the system comes back up.

If you receive a persistent alert that keeps popping up over and over again you’ll need to do the following:

1 – Clear your browser cache to remove the malicious web page from the browser’s cache.

2 – Perform a thorough malware scan with your currently installed security app.

Bottom line: If you get an alert from the security software that’s already installed on your computer, by all means check it out. But if an alert pops up from out of the blue claiming that you need to install some type of app to rid your machine of malware, it’s a scam.

Tech news that caught my eye…

• Elon Musk increases Tesla stake, eyeing fuller control amid market challenges

• ChromeOS gets better multitasking and Wi-Fi traffic prioritization

• Instagram courts TikTok users with algorithm revamp

• Microsoft adds more security chiefs following recent cyberattacks

• Millions of devices still vulnerable to abandoned USB worm, continues to spread globally

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Thanks so much, and have an amazing day.

Your tech buddy,

Rick Rouse
https://www.RicksDailyTips.com