Digital Smarts - Dealing with Bogus Pop-Up Alerts

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  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$bin is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->__construct() (line 30 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$wildcard_flushes is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 637 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$invalidate is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 638 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_lifetime is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 639 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 640 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_content_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 641 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_temporary_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 642 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$flushed is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 643 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).

Have you seen a pop-up alert saying your computer has been blocked and you need to call an 800 number to unlock it? What can you do to avoid this kind of scam? First, to get rid of the immediate problem, either close the pop-up window or if that doesn’t work, force-quit the browser: Hit the Command, Option and Esc keys on a Mac or the Ctrl, Shift and Esc keys in Windows, select the browser, and click “Force Quit” on a Mac or “End task” in Windows. Then read “Don't let sketchy pop-up ads scare you” on the USA Today site to understand more about where these scams come from and how to minimize your risk .