What is YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED scam? And how does it work?
YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED scam is a deceiving alert meant to trick users into thinking that something is wrong with their PCs. This tech support scam is hosted on malicious websites which you can get redirected to when you click some ads or when there is an ad-supported program installed in your computer that’s causing such redirects. When you get redirected to such sites, you will see the following alert on your browser:
“YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED
Error #DT00X02
Call Microsoft Technical Support +1-844-750-6256 (Toll-Free):
Do Not Ignore This Important Warning
If you close this page without resolving the issue, access to your computer will be disabled to prevent further damage to our network.
Your computer has alerted us that it was infected with viruses and spyware. The following data is at risk:
- Facebook Login
- Credit Card Information
- Email Credentials
- Browsing History and Data
You must contact us immediately so our engineers can guide you through the recovery process by phone. Please call us within the next 5 minutes to prevent complete loss of your computer.”
The message may seem believable and it even has some error code. As alarming as the message may be, you should know better than to believe this scam since there really nothing wrong with your computer except that there might be adware installed in it. You must not contact the fake tech support number given as you would only end up talking to the crooks behind this scam. In fact, they might only convince you to install some shady program, or pay for some unwanted and unnecessary service, or worse, unknowingly give them remote access to your computer.
How does YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED scam travel the web?
Like pointed out earlier, the YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED scam travels the web using malicious websites as well as ads and ad-supported programs. Ad-supported programs or adware can often be found on software bundles. So if you have installed this kind of software package lately, you might want to consider checking the programs you recently installed as one of them could be the adware that’s causing the redirects to websites that are hosting the YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED scam.
Carefully follow the removal guide below to delete YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED tech support scam.
Step_1: Tap F11 to exit if your browser is forced into full-screen mode.
Step_2: After that, try to close the browser manually. If you find it hard to do so, close the browser through the Task Manager.
Step_3: Tap the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to launch the Task Manager.
Step_4: After opening the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the affected browser’s process and end it by clicking End Task or End Process.
Step_5: Close the Task Manager and tap the Win + R keys to open Run and then type in appwiz.cpl to open Control Panel to uninstall the adware program behind the fake alert.
Step_6: Look for the adware program or any unfamiliar program under the list of installed programs and once you’ve found it, uninstall it.
Step_7: Close Control Panel.
Step_8: Then tap the Win + E keys to open File Explorer.
Step_9: Reset all your browsers back to their default state.
Google Chrome
- Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
- Look for suspicious browser extensions or any unwanted add-on, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
- Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
- Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
- Select “Open a specific page or set of pages”.
- Click the More actions button next to the hijacker and click Remove.
Mozilla Firefox
- Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
- In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
- Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
- Select Options and then move to the General menu.
- Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section and then restart the browser.
Internet Explorer
- Launch Internet Explorer.
- Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
- Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
- Click OK to save the changes made.
Step_10: Navigate to the following directories and look for the adware installer like the software bundle it came with as well as other suspicious files and delete them.
- %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
- %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
- %TEMP%
Step_11: Close the File Explorer and empty your Recycle Bin.
Congratulations, you have just removed YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED Scam in Windows 10 all by yourself. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit fixmypcfree.com daily.
Now that’s how you remove YOUR COMPUTER WAS LOCKED Scam in Windows 10 on a computer. On the other hand, if your computer is going through some system-related issues that have to get fixed, there is a one-click solution known as Restoro you could check out to resolve them.
This program is a useful tool that could repair corrupted registries and optimize your PC’s overall performance. Aside from that, it also cleans out your computer for any junk or corrupted files that help you eliminate any unwanted files from your system. This is basically a solution that’s within your grasp with just a click. It’s easy to use as it is user-friendly. For a complete set of instructions in downloading and using it, refer to the steps below
Perform a full system scan using Restoro. To do so, follow the instructions below.
