Good Lifestyle

Lucky to reconnect with old friends to the ability to watch funny videos at any time,the Internet gave us a lot to be grateful. But unfortunately, with good comes evil. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has long advised Americans to be careful when they go online, because criminals are eager to attack virtually people, and there are so many different ways that you can beMake a target For crooks. Now the agency warns the public of a certain scam that could literally appear on your computer. Read the rest to find out when you should turn off your device immediately to protect yourself.

Read this then:If you pick up the phone and hear this, hang up, the FBI says in a new warning.

The latest FBI internet crime report sheds concern about the prevalence of online scams targeting people in the United States.Number of cybercrime complaints at 847,376 in 2021, which was an increase of 7% compared to the number of complaints reported the previous year. This led to more than $ 6.9 billion in potential losses in total.

"In 2021, America experienced an unprecedented increase in cyber attacks and malicious cyber-activity", "Paul Abbide, the deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a press release accompanying the report.

The FBI field office in Chicago, Illinois,released an alert September 15 warning Americans of the rise of a specific cybercrime form. According to the alert, residents of the Chicago region are targeted by a technical support scam.Siobhan Johnson, a special agent for FBI Chicago, said that the scam currently affecting those in the region "begins with a computer intrusion".

"The victims of this scam experience a frozen computer followed by a pop-up on their screen advising that their computer has been hacked," said Johnson. "Pop-up contains an alleged number be for a well-known computer software company; however, this number really belongs to the crooks."

RELATED:For more up-to-date information, register for our daily newsletter.

This scam continues to evolve once you have called the number provided by the crooks. According to Johnson, the crook responding to the telephone claims to be an employee of an IT software company and says that your bank accounts and your social security number have been compromised. You will then be connected with other crooks who usurp the representatives of the banks and the social workers of the Security Administration.

"None of these people work forone of these organizations"Said Johnson to Fox 32 Chicago." They are all crooks. They all know their role in the scam and they will just lead you more and more deeply in the rabbit burrow. "

To avoid this, the Chicago FBI office warned that you should never call the listed number in a contextual window. "Real warnings and security messageswill never ask you To call a phone number, "the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) explains.

Instead, the FBI offers this advice on its official website: "Disconnect from the Internet andStop your device If you see a contextual message or a locked screen. Pop-ups are regularly used by the authors to spread malware. Allow contextual blockers to avoid accidentally clicking on a contextual window. ""

According to the FBI, technological support scams are common systems used to commit fraud among older Americans. "The criminals present themselves as representatives of the technology and propose to solve computer problems nonexistent," said the agency. "Scammers have remote access to the devices of the victims and sensitive information."AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

Johnson said that it was exactly what's going on in Chicago at the moment, noting that in this specific program, the crooks convinced people to transfer their money to fraudulent accounts under the guise of "protecting" it. "Imagine being older and retired, and losing $ 1 million from your savings," said Fox 32 Chicago.

The FBI Chicago office sees a large number of people "who otherwise have a complete and total control over their lives" for the absence of a victim of this scam, which caused the release of this new alert. "Call your mother, call your father, call your grandparents, let them know: once the contextual window appears on your screen, that's where the problem is," said Johnson.