Don't Touch That Dial... - Comments Page 1

I recently had this same scam appear on my wife's computer. She does not use Chrome, but uses AOL, so it would seem this is not limited to Chrome.

I used to use Chrome to back up Firefox. But Chrome has become impossible to handle - logic has gone, but the last straw was preventing me from bookmarking to Toolbar my very old Yahoo Mail a/c.

It insists that this account of mine is a newbie and
demands that I only login using my Gmail email and
then presenting me with blank pages and history for Inbox and the rest.

You could also try CTRL ALT DEL, which will take you to Task Manager. Delete Chrome if possible and log back into Chrome. It will say: Chrome didn't shut down correctly, just use the restore button which appears in the same panel. I have also had other panels, suggesting that a number be called to unlock the computer.

I have had this happen now twice, just open task master and end google session.

Bob, thanks for this article. I am a local journalist in the Eastern Sierra and I also teach seniors how to use computers and the Internet. I had one senior call me frantic over this message on his computer. Unfortunately, he had already been taken by it once to the tune of a couple of hundred dollars. This is serious and seniors are not the only victims. That Google hasn't shut this thing down before now is just irresponsible. Too many similar scams are out there both on the Internet and over the telephone, stealing innocent peoples' money.

You have to turn it around on the scammers. I have so much fun calling them. Usually a friend will call saying they have a similar screen, what should I do. I get the number, then tell them to shut down their computer. Then I call the number giving out the wrong information, wrong CC number. Oh sorry I'm old I read the number wrong, let me try it again. Darn, missed it by 1 number. That CC got denied, let's try this one. When your retired, you have the time to waste their time.

Thanks Bob! I have had this to happen on my computer several times and I automatically shut the computer down instantly! I did not really know where it was coming from, so now I know, thanks again for your advice!

had it happen twice same laptop. both times was at e bay.was running Firefox.got out by killing the browser an tree. hit ctrl-alt-del running win 7 sp1
each time different message.

I do what Mac does. It works. It pays to know somethng about computers. One way to learn is to google for answers to questions. I have learned much from other computer users. If you don't take the time to learn you will be paying for your mistakes.

Is it possible that, if you use Chrome with the same Google account on multiple devices, the flooded browser history will affect the other devices as well?

It sure is handy to have all this stuff shared among our various devices! But a problem showing up on one device might have been caused by a problem on another device.

I use Chrome on Windows, Mac, and iOs. Windows, it seems, has the best troubleshooting and cleaning tools. I wound up uninstalling Chrome on every device but one Windows machine.

I'm still uncertain how to absolutely remove all Chrome-related files, including user profiles, on each platform.

It's mind-boggling!

Yes it should be fixed immediately along with the AW_SNAP crash that always happens on any os that I us.

Well, we now have another good reason to avoid Google Chrome! Opera or Firefox anyone?

I used Firefox for years. Now I will deal with it's idiosyncrasies. I swithched to Chromes about two weeks ago, but , this is a bad taste. I'll deal with Firefox, my choice anyway. It is a better browser.

Wow! Talk about the height of hypocrisy.
Google really has balls for going public calling Microsoft onto the carpet a couple of weeks ago for a long-known bug in its browser, which Microsoft admitted, was a low-priority fix for them, yet seem to ignore a serious problem with their own browser.

Bob, what is the name of this bug in Chrome that's been known since 2014? Two years seems like a long time to patch... I want to look it up and do some research on it.
Thanks :)

I have also been hit by this annoyance dozens of times over the last 10 months, and Avast & Malwarebytes do not block. It does not matter what site you are at, it just pops up and you can not delete it by turning your computer off & back on.
I usually just shut down for the night and go to my PC, where I do not use Google Chrome.

Just an additional comment; ironically, just after I sent my initial comment, when I returned to the opening page of Bob's newsletter, what should appear under Bob's picture was a rotating add window, urging me to click on the bar to switch to Google Chrome "for a better browser experience"

Had this happen on IE 11 going to youtube. Ctrl Alt Delete and a restart and then ran a scan that said all was well. Don't be fooled.

Yesterday we received the same call twice. A recorded voice told me that "Your Microsoft license has been expired," and told me that I should call a number (area code 855) to renew, because my computer would be shut down.

I had this happen with a call from somebody claiming to be from Norton Internet Security Team (Full disclosure, I Use Norton and have for about 15 years). The caller wanted me to let them install "Team Viewer" so they could fix my Norton Product. I played along with them for about an hour, claiming I could not get Team Viewer to work. There frustration grew and grew until they finally caught on and called me a few names and hung up. If you do this to these scammers be careful they can be very cleaver.