Make your computer a harder target.
Most people who get caught out are not careless. They are busy, or they were caught at a bad moment by something built by professionals to be convincing. I set your computer and phone up so the worst of it never reaches you, then sit down and show you how to recognize the rest.
Half of it is settings. Half of it is knowing what to look for.
You can buy software that blocks some of this. You cannot buy the part where somebody explains it to you properly, and that is the part that actually sticks.
Blocking what can be blocked
Proper protection turned on and actually configured, rather than a trial that expired in 2019 and has been nagging you ever since. An ad blocker, because a large share of fake virus warnings arrive through advertising. And I turn off browser notification permissions, which is the setting that lets a website push fake alerts to your desktop even when your browser is closed. Almost nobody knows they agreed to that.
The rules that catch nearly everything
You do not need to memorize a hundred scams, because they all run the same play: manufactured urgency, plus a number to call or a link to click. I give you three or four plain rules that cover the lot, written down on paper so you can keep them by the computer. The main one, if you take nothing else: no real computer warning ever gives you a phone number.
Passwords and the email account
Your email is the master key to everything else you own, because it is where every password reset lands. I make sure it has a strong password that is not reused anywhere, get two-step verification switched on, and set it up in a way you can actually live with rather than one that locks you out next Tuesday.
Somebody to ask before you act
The single most useful thing I can give you is permission to check. If something appears on your screen, or somebody calls, and you are not sure, ring me and describe it. Two minutes on the phone costs nothing and I would far rather do that than help you sort out the aftermath. Family members are welcome to call on a parent's behalf too.
What these things actually look like
The one I get called about most is the full-screen warning: red banners, an alarm noise, a Microsoft or Apple logo, and a phone number in large letters. It is fake every single time, because a web page has no ability to scan your computer for viruses. It could not know. I have written the whole thing up, including exactly how to close it without clicking anything inside it, in why that virus warning is almost certainly a scam.
Then there is the phone call out of the blue from "Microsoft" about a problem they have detected. Microsoft does not know your phone number and does not monitor your computer. There is the renewal email for a Norton or McAfee subscription you never had, which exists purely to get you to call. There are the delivery texts about a parcel that could not be delivered. And there is the grandchild in trouble, always with a reason you must not tell anyone else, and that request for secrecy is the tell.
They are all the same shape once you can see it. Real organizations do not mind if you hang up and call them back on a number you looked up yourself. Scammers cannot survive that, which is why every one of them works so hard to keep you on the line.
If something has already got through, that is a different job and a fixable one: see virus and malware removal. If you are arranging this for a parent or grandparent, my senior tech help visits are built around exactly this kind of patient walkthrough.
Related help
Four ways to get help
A scam prevention setup is usually a visit or an online session, but the whole list is here.
Drop It Off
Bring your computer to me in Storrs, leave it with me, and collect it when I call to say it is done.
Start a drop-off →We Come to You
I come out and sort things where they sit. It is $99 to get me there, which covers the first hour.
Book a home visit →Online Help
We talk on the phone while I look at your screen over the internet, so nobody has to leave home.
See if it suits you →Mail It
Too far to drive? Ship it to me and I will send it back to you once it is working.
How mail-in works →Nobody should have to be an expert to be safe.
Book a session for yourself, or set one up for a parent or grandparent. And if something is on your screen right now and you are not sure about it, just call. There is no charge to ask.