What is Windows Defender Security Center scam
Windows Defender Security Center pop-up is a tech-support scam. The reason it’s classified as that is that it promotes fake tech support numbers with professional scammers on the other end of the line. These types of scams try to scare users with intimidating alerts about supposed malware infections on their computers. They also make ridiculous claims like “Access to this PC has been blocked for security reasons”. All to scare users into calling fake tech-support numbers, allowing scammers to trick them into paying hundreds of dollars for repair services they do not need nor actually receive. If you get this tech-support scam on your screen, you can simply close the window and go about your business as normal.
“Your computer has alerted us that it has been infected with a DOSAttack Spyware,” is how this particular tech-support scam begins. It then proceeds to make even more ridiculous claims about the malware stealing your files and personal information. Furthermore, the alert announces that your computer has been blocked because of the infection. If you know anything about computers, all of these claims will sound completely ridiculous. First of all, Microsoft does not block computers when they become infected with malware. Second, there is no such thing as DOSAttack Spyware. DOS stands for Denial of Service, a type of attack during which attackers flood their target with traffic in order to disrupt it. For example, launching a DOS attack on a website would make the website inaccessible. And spyware is a type of malware that can spy on your computer activity and steal certain information. And third, legitimate virus/malware alerts do not appear in a browser. Browsers simply cannot detect malicious software.
The purpose of these fake alerts is to scare users into calling the displayed numbers. If you were to call them, you would be greeted by professional scammers pretending to be legitimate Microsoft technicians. They would tell you many ridiculous lies about the state of your computer to convince you to give them remote access to your device. If they get remote access, they may steal your files, install questionable programs, and even set a password for your computer, all while pretending to fix your computer. After sufficient time has passed, they will demand that you pay a couple of hundred dollars for their services in gift cards. If you refuse to pay, they may get quite aggressive and even refuse to give you the password, if they set one.
In the future, you can ignore all of the virus alerts that appear in your browser. Only trust your anti-virus software to provide legitimate alerts. And if you’re interested in what tech-support scams look like in full, you can find many education/entertainment videos on YouTube of professionals engaging with these scammers.
It’s also important that you determine why you’re being redirected. In most cases, the redirects happen when visiting certain high-risk websites. Those sites often expose users to questionable advertisement content, including redirects to tech-support scams. You can stop these redirects by simply installing an adblocker program. However, if you’re redirected regularly, your computer may have adware installed. Adware and similar infections install via the software bundling method, which essentially allows them to install without requiring permission. If you want to avoid installing adware in the future, pay attention when installing free programs. To be more specific, install programs using Advanced (Custom) settings instead of Default. Unlike Default settings, Advanced will make the added offers visible and allow you to deselect all of them. It’s enough to just uncheck the boxes of those offers.
Windows Defender Security Center removal
Depending on why you were redirected to this tech-support scam, you may not even need to do anything. If the redirect was triggered by a website you were visiting, all you may need to do is install an adblocker program. If you don’t already have an adblocker program installed, you will notice a significantly better browsing experience because you will no longer be bombarded with intrusive ads.
While you were likely redirected to this scam by the sites you visited, we recommend checking your computer for an adware infection, just in case. Scan your computer with anti-virus software, and if adware or similar infection is detected, allow the program to remove it. If adware is behind your redirects, only removing it would stop them. Removing adware is easiest using anti-virus software but it’s also possible to remove it manually.