'****Do not ignore this high priority message****' Pop-Ups

The '****Do not ignore this high priority message****' pop-ups are a set of misleading messages whose purpose is to make the users think that their computers have been infected with a threat. These pop-ups are often spawned by fraudulent websites that users might encounter while browsing low-quality Web destinations, which have been paid to distribute these shady advertisements. The unfortunate thing is that the '****Do not ignore this high priority message****' pop-ups may limit the browser's functionality by making it difficult for users to close any of their opened tabs or switch to another tab. Sometimes it might be necessary to fully shut down the Web browser and re-open it to dispose of the nagging '****Do not ignore this high priority message****' pop-ups.

The reason why these pop-ups are used is that the con artists behind them want to convince innocent users to call a phone line, which is supposed to get them in touch with computer technicians. However, the '****Do not ignore this high priority message****' pop-ups tell viewers to contact 800-158-029 for further information – a research showed that this number is not used by a credible provider of PC maintenance services and, instead, it is associated with online tactics that may take hundreds of dollars from users. The crooks may use the same pop-ups on the following domains:

• Criticalwarningerrortgfn.xyz/main4/
• Computerblockedvirusattack.xyz
• Getwindowsalert.xyz
• Criticalwarningerrortgfn.xyz
• Mysystemdefenderwarning.xyz
• Trojancriticalalert.xyz
• Trojanwarningalert.xyz
• Warningmsgalertghy.xyz
• Windowssecurityalert12.xyz
• Windowssecurityalertjhg.xyz
• Windowsvirusdetected.xyz
• Wintrojandetectedalert.xyz

The tactic works by lying to users about the state of their computers and telling them that they need to act immediately or their private details might be exposed to cyber crooks. The 'solutions' that the con artists provide are never free, and victims might be asked to pay hundreds of dollars for made-up services or software that barely works. We'd like to remind everyone that technical support services are never promoted via browser pop-ups, and messages that do this are very likely to be part of a hoax. The '****Do not ignore this high priority message****' pop-ups are fraudulent, and the best thing to do if you encounter them is to fully ignore their contents and continue browsing other, safer websites.