With the internet becoming bigger each passing day, the amount of scammers online is also increasing at quite a pace. Now, an old scamming method has come back where bad actors online are luring in those who are consuming pornography on their computers. According to a recent report, people on porn sites are being met with a fake pop-up that warns users that their “browser has been locked" for watching porn videos. A security researcher has alerted people about this scam, further sharing a screenshot of a suspicious URL resulting in a full-page pop-up on a Google Chrome browser.
According to the report from internet security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia on Twitter, the pop-up warns users that their browser has been locked due to watching porn. The pop-up asks users for money in exchange of unblocking the browser. The pop-up has been disguised in a way that it appears to be from the Ministry of Law and Justice and states that the user’s computer “has been blocked" under decree number 173-279. It also warns users that the browser has been locked due to “viewing and dissemination of materials forbidden by the law of India."
Beware of such scams where #hackers may ask you for money on the behalf of the #Ministry_of_Law_and_Justice. While browsing some websites you may get a #FullScreen Popup window and it will tell you that your PC has been locked by Ministry. Don't Pay. Check Pics… #infoSec pic.twitter.com/f2op9TmylP— Rajshekhar Rajaharia (@rajaharia) January 24, 2022
The pop-up asks users for a sum of Rs 29,000 as the penalty to unlock their computer. The scam even goes as far as stating that the case materials for the said computer will be transferred to the ministry for criminal proceedings if the user fails to pay the penalty. It says that the user has 6 hours to pay the fine.
The message also carries a “Payment Details" section where users can make the payment via a Visa or MasterCard card. It says that the browser will be unlocked as soon as the payment is made.
The scam is obviously fake and wrongly names the ministry of Law and Justice, in order to dupe people. While porn remains banned in India, the government does not track people’s computers to find those who are finding workarounds around the banned websites. Now this is a very old technique for scammers within India as well. A similar scam was uncovered back in July last year where scammers asked people for Rs 3,000 for a similar warning.
While the most basic thing to do is avoid watching porn if you don’t want to fall for such a scam. However, if such a pop-up shows on your computer, the easiest thing to do is close the browser window. If that does not work and the pop-up has taken over your browser (an unlikely scenario), then you can go to the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete) and End Task for your browser. Further, a force shut down will also help your case, in case the previous two methods don’t work.
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