Beware of the 'Your Windows Got Corrupted Due To Virus' Scam
There is yet another scam making the rounds, this time distributed through malicious referrals and rogue ads.
While most scams rely on malicious spam emails, this one is hosted on websites. The gist of the scam is really simple. The scam page you will land on after hitting a bad redirect or a malicious ad will claim that "your computer has been locked because your windows got corrupted due to virus".
The red flags are very obvious from the very start. The lack of proper capitalization and the missing preposition in just this one sentence should be a very clear sign that this message does not come from the "Windows Firewall Security Center", as the scam page tries to persuade you.
Victims will be given a phone number to call, under the false pretense that this is a technical support helpline run by Microsoft. This is, obviously, not true. Calling the fake support number will put you through to operators associated with the scam who will attempt to extract some sort of sensitive personal and financial information from you while trying to make themselves appear helpful.
Be aware that Microsoft will never contact you on their own initiative and will never shove a support phone number in your face like this. Whenever you see a similar setup, know that this is a scam and close the browser tab.
