quickquestion1234- wrote:
I tried to read a book I saw on instagram called a discovery: love and other things online which i did not realize was inappropriate. i first got a message that said i was hacked with 16 viruses and it tried to get me to download an app but the top review said it was a scam. i tried the pdf link and got a message that said 78 viruses!!! i dowloaded this spyguard app which also said i was hacked by 78 viruses but it wanted me to pay 15$ to get rid of it. i cleared my browser history and it went away. now i’m on the apps vpn. do i need to be? what else can i do? i’m only 14 help.
Spammers and pop-up advertisers lie. For getting folks to do things they shouldn’t, fear works. Panic works. Titillation works. Any strong emotion.
Even better, they got you to load an unnecessary app that is completely unrelated to the lie about viruses, that badly solves a problem that hasn’t existed for a decade. and they’re now in a perfect position to collect your data. Which was the point of lying here. Collecting personally-identified network activity. Maybe also selling the app, too.
Remove and delete the VPN.
In addition to the link in a reply above, here are some other scams: Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support
Here are discussions of many sorts of scams: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/
