For the past few years,
there has been a security scam where a web page locks your computer
and says that you need to call some number to fix the problem.
Actually, the computer is not locked - it just appears to be.
In fact, if you have more than one monitor attached,
it is easy to remove the scam page and not lose anything.
It isn't important, but my friend accessed one of these scam pages by making a single letter
typo when trying to access a page.
I am not providing details because I don't want anyone else to be affected.
And - YES - we did report the scam page to several groups that should
help take it down.
This page exists because all the help pages I found worked ..
but then you lost all the open tabs.
The procedure detailed below worked for me without losing any of the open tabs :)
These instructions refer to Chrome
I had 2 monitors on the system (might work with one)
There were 2 instances of Chrome (this is important)
For those who don't already know,
JavaScript is what allows interactive web pages - like email, shopping, and maps -
to show dynamic content.
Unfortunately, it also allows bad actors to lock the browser .. as in the scam page we are
about to get rid of.
In this case, the scam page used JavaScript
to hide the tab bar and to capture almost all key presses.
As a result, I can not
Use the tab to close the page
Use Ctrl-W to close the page
Use F12 to enter the debugger to stop the JavaScript
Therefore, the solution is to
Disable JavaScript for all web pages
Shut down Chrome without closing any tabs
Restart Chrome
Restore all open tabs
Delete the scam page
Re-enable Javascript
Some changes made to Chrome won't take effect until after you restart it.
Disabling JavaScript is one of those.
Once you restart Chrome with JavaScript disabled
(and removed the bad page)
you can re-enable JavaScript without restarting Chrome
- simply refreshing a page will allow it to run (must do this for each page/tab).
As mentioned above, there must be at least 2 instances of Chrome running.
You can use Alt-Tab to switch between open windows (instances).
For the following to work, you must first switch to a Chrome window
that is not locked by the scam page.
If you have multiple monitors, you might be able to do this with the mouse,
otherwise, you need to use Alt-tab.
In Chrome, there are 3 dots in the upper right.
Click on the 3 dots to open the menu
In the menu, select Settings
The rest of the instructions refer to the options on the Settings page
Select On startup
Verify that Continue where you left off is selected
This allows Chrome to reopen all the current tabs after we shut it down.
Select Privacy and security
Scroll down and select Site settings
Scroll down and select JavaScript
Select Don't allow sites to use JavaScript
After a restart, this stops all sites from using JavaScript which
will allow you to close the scam site.
After the problem is fixed, you will need to change this back.
Now it is time to crash Chrome - this will force a hard stop.
On the keyboard, Press Alt Ctrl Del at the same time
Select Task Manager
There should be several instances of Chrome displayed
One with a number in parentheses after it, and
One for each open tab
Select the one with the parentheses and click
End task.
That should close Chrome and all the tabs.
Close the task manager
Restart Chrome and select Restore all
That should restore all the open tabs .. including the one with the scam page.
On the system I was using, it was obvious which page was the scam -
it had a big warning on it.
Use Ctrl-W to close just that tab.
(The 'X' on the tab should also work)
At this point, the problem is solved ..
but JavaScript still needs to be re-enabled for all the other pages :)
Reopen the Chrome menu (click on the 3 dots)
In the menu, select Settings
Select Privacy and security
Scroll down and select Site settings
Scroll down and select JavaScript
Select Sites can use JavaScript
At this point, none of the open tabs are using JavaScript ..
but they are allowed to.
Pressing F5 (refresh) will cause the current tab to use JavaScript.
As an alternative, you could use the Task Manager to stop Chrome and
reopen it so that all pages would run Javascript.
I performed these steps on a friends machine and might have left out a minor point or two.
(Hope not)
Good luck.