If a full-screen warning has popped up with a phone number, a siren or a countdown, it's a scam. Your computer is almost certainly fine. The steps below get rid of it.
$39 books an in-person visit and comes straight off the price. Remote help is $39 for 30 minutes. Card only, and you approve the price before we start.
Real security warnings never give you a phone number. Microsoft, Apple and your antivirus don't ask you to call anyone. A phone number on the screen is proof by itself that the warning is fake.
Real warnings don't use a countdown or a siren. Those are there to frighten you into calling before you think.
Look at where it appeared. If it's inside your web browser window, it's a web page pretending to be a warning.
Real warnings don't ask you to install a remote control program. That's what the call is for: getting onto your machine and into your bank.
Don't be embarrassed. These people do this all day. What matters now is the order you do things in.
If you let them onto your computer, disconnect it from the internet, then call your bank on a number you look up yourself. Then change your email password and your bank password from a different device, like your phone. Email first, because it's the key to resetting everything else.
If you paid with a gift card, keep the card and the receipt and report it. Gift card money is sometimes recoverable when it's reported within hours.
Then get the machine looked at, because whatever they installed is still on it. Call OkieNerd HQ and we'll get somebody to you.
Some of these fix it outright, in ten minutes, and save you the visit.
We don't do hardware repair, the kind that needs parts or a soldering iron. Better to know that before anybody drives out.
$39 books an in-person visit, and it comes straight off the price of the visit. Our hourly rate steps up with distance from downtown of the city that serves your area: $110 an hour within 25 miles, $130 in the 25 to 50 mile band, and $145 in the 50 to 75 mile band. That's how we cover the drive, so there's no separate travel fee.
Remote help is $39 for a 30-minute session and starts with a phone call at the time you picked. If you use us a few times a year, Nerd on Call is $14.99 a month and includes two remote sessions and an in-person visit each year.
Cards only. Local Nerds aren't permitted to accept cash or checks, so you'll never be asked for either at the door. Full detail is on the FAQ.
Rather talk it through first? Have a Local Nerd call you, free, no obligation.
In-person visits reach up to 75 miles out from downtown of each city we serve, whichever state that address is in. Remote help works anywhere. Check your address on the ZIP checker, or see the whole state on the map.
If it shows a phone number, a countdown, or plays a siren, no. Security warnings from Microsoft, Apple or your antivirus never ask you to call anyone. It's a web page made to look like a system warning, and closing the browser is usually all it takes.
Disconnect the computer from the internet, then call your bank on a number you look up yourself. Change your email password first from a different device, then your bank password. Keep any gift card and receipt if you paid that way. Then have the machine cleaned up, because whatever they installed is still there.
If they were given remote access, treat it as though they saw everything on the screen and everything you typed. That's why the bank call and the password changes come before the cleanup.
Most of what people call a virus is either a scam web page, which closing the browser fixes, or unwanted software that installed itself alongside something else. Real viruses are rarer than the popups suggest. A Local Nerd can tell you which of the three you have, usually in the first few minutes.
On a current version of Windows or macOS, the protection built in is good and already on. The paid products pushed hardest are often the ones that slow the machine down and are hardest to cancel. Ask your Local Nerd before you buy anything.
Usually yes. A $39 remote session covers most cleanups. We come out when there's more than one device, when money may have moved and you'd like someone with you, or when you'd just prefer it.