Everyone who uses a computer has come across the ‘You’re an instant winner!’ pop-up box or pop-ups with free offers. But is it really free? The answer is absolutely NO! Nothing is free; in fact you can pay dearly for it! These pop-ups are typically used to get your personal information (name, address, phone number and email address) to sell it to mass mailing companies. But a growing majority of them are used to gather info from your computer and install spyware that can let viruses into your computer.
So the next time an unwanted pop-up appears on your computer, close it by clicking the red X in the upper right hand corner. You can block all pop-ups with the pop-up blocker that is built in all new versions of Internet Explorer. You can turn on the pop-up blocker by following the simple steps below:
1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Go to Tools
3. Select Internet Properties from the menu
4. Go to the Privacy Tab
5. Under the Pop-up Blocker Section make sure the box beside turn on Pop-up Blocker is checked
6. Click OK
7. You now have your pop-up blocker turned on.
For those Pop-up that are warnings such as, ‘Your computer is infected. Click here to fix,’ or if the pop-up appears to be potentially spyware or malware use the ALT+F4 key to close those kind of pop-ups. If you do receive these kind of pop-up please take the time to read our blogs on How to Remove Spyware from Your Computer, My Internet is getting slower and slower, and The Red Antivirus Software Pop-up Alerts