{"id":4177,"date":"2023-01-05T00:15:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T00:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2024-08-27T05:31:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T05:31:28","slug":"what-is-scareware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/privacy-and-safety\/what-is-scareware","title":{"rendered":"What is scareware?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"main-content\" data-grid=\"col-12\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph-3\">Scareware is a type of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/privacy-and-safety\/what-is-malware-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself\">malware<\/a> that manipulates or scares users into downloading software or visiting websites that infect a user\u2019s device with a virus. Scareware often appears as a pop-up window with text proclaiming that your computer has been infected and a button or link to download software that claims to fix the problem. When users are scared into clinking the button or link to the fake software, malware that is used to steal personal data is downloaded onto the device. Scareware can be distributed via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/privacy-and-safety\/recover-from-email-scams\">spam emails<\/a> and may involve scaring users into paying illegitimate sources as well. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"full-bleed-image\">\n        <picture class=\"c-image\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/042-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:767px) and (max-width:1600px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/042-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:540px) and (max-width:767px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/042-1600x600-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/042-1600x600-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n    <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scareware works by inciting fear or anxiety in a user, manipulating them into quickly and thoughtlessly downloading a virus or paying for fraudulent or illegitimate services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy-and-safety","tag-privacy-and-safety"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is scareware? \u2013 Microsoft 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t be spooked by scareware, malware that manipulates users into downloading software or visiting sites that infect their device with a virus. Learn how to protect yourself against it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"What is scareware? \u2013 Microsoft 365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Don\u2019t be spooked by scareware, malware that manipulates users into downloading software or visiting sites that infect their device with a virus. Learn how to protect yourself against it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/042-800x550-1.jpg\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is scareware? \u2013 Microsoft 365","description":"Don\u2019t be spooked by scareware, malware that manipulates users into downloading software or visiting sites that infect their device with a virus. 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