{"id":8859,"date":"2024-11-12T14:26:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T19:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?p=8859"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:59:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:59:36","slug":"pop-ups-locking-out-my-browser-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/2024\/pop-ups-locking-out-my-browser-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop-ups locking out my browser: Scam!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Pop-ups locking out my browser: Scam!\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>There is a common browser scam in which a website can lock your browser session. The page typically will prompt you with a login prompt or Accept or OK button but no matter what click on the page remains active. A popular scam is the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesafemac.com\/tech-support-scam-pop-ups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tech Support Pop-Ups<\/a>&nbsp;where the ad tells you that your computer has a virus and to call a tech support number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the steps to get your session back (Windows users):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Press &lt;ctrl>&lt;alt>&lt;del> and from the Task manager select your browser, and stop the task<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>when you re-open your browser it will prompt you to restore the session. DO NOT restore your session, leave it closed and that by default will open a clean browser session (browser features may vary between versions but basically follow these steps).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some pro-active methods to help minimize these issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Check your unknown URL\u2019s using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.virustotal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VirusTotal<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use Adware Plugins in your browser (See: Ad Block Plus, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger )<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use a Windows Sandbox program that separates your Browser from the O\/S (Sandboxie)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a common browser scam in which a website can lock your browser session. The page typically will prompt you with a login prompt or Accept or OK button but no matter what click on the page remains active. A popular scam is the&nbsp;Tech Support Pop-Ups&nbsp;where the ad tells you that your computer has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8860,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8859\/revisions\/8860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}