Enable Microsoft Edge Scareware Blocker

Summary: If you land on a scareware scam website in Microsoft Edge browser, you will be protected by Defender SmartScreen, which stops the scam taking over your full screen and allows you to close it easily.

Scareware scams are a particularly convincing type of tech support scam and use aggressive web pages to convince victims into thinking their system is infected with malware, pressuring people to call fake tech support number where scammers attempt to gain access to their device.

Scareware can pop up out of nowhere, particularly through deceptive online advertisements.

For example, you might by accident click on a misleading banner or button, which could redirect you to a scareware site.

Scareware uses audio and keyboard mouse tricks to incite panic, quite often they will play a warning from a computer-generated voice, leading victims to believe their computer has an identity theft virus and urging users to call support immediately.

If you land on a scareware scam website in Microsoft Edge browser will be protected by Defender SmartScreen, which provides real-time checks on new and unfamiliar sites where abuse is more likely to hide.

When scareware blocker suspects a page is a scam, Microsoft Edge will put you back in control by exiting full screen mode, stopping aggressive audio playback, warning you, and showing a thumbnail of the page.