How to Close Fake-Warning Full-Screen Popups

Often, people will come across a fake-warning full-screen popup on a website that will display fake warnings of viruses, transactions or otherwise suggest threat or urgency if you don’t click/call.

Knowing how to close these fake-warning full-screen popups can help ease your mind, and continue with what you were doing.

What are fake-warning full-screen popups?

These popups are malicious websites that are usually opened on your computer by clicking on a bad link from an ad, or set as a auto-popup on a website.

These popups will automatically enter full-screen mode, blare loud sirens, and warn you that you have a virus, or a large payment was made etc.

These are made with the intent of scaring you, and usually want you to call their support line. It is also possible these could carry a download link with a virus that the creator wants infect your computer with.

It is important to know what anti-virus you actually have and what the real notifications look like. Also use common sense when these things popup and ask yourself questions like:

• Is this warning from the company who made the computer/operating system I am using?
• Do I have this anti-virus installed?
• Why would a major company tell me to call them regarding what is on my computer?
• Do I use this company’s services?

You can also see in the pictured examples above how unprofessional, poorly formatted, or outdated some of these popups are. They are often riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. However, it is important to remember that this isn’t always the case, and some may look very real and convincing.

How to close them

The key thing to remember is these are just popups that open in full screen mode within your browser.

This means that what is displayed is just a website pretending to be a system warning. It is no different than any tabs you use daily, just that it is in full-screen mode.

This also means there are not actually any viruses or malware that come from the popup alone.

It would require you to click on the bait, and interact with their websites in order for something like that to happen.

This is why it is very important not to click on anything in these full-screen popups. In order to close them follow these steps in this order:

Windows

• Hold down escape to exit full screen, if that does not do it try pressing F11.
• If this doesn’t work you can try to press ALT + F4 . Be sure not to re-open closed tabs when opening the browser again. If your browser is set to do this automatically this may not work as it will simply open the tab with the popup again.
• Use CTRL ALT Delete on Windows to close the browser through the Task Manager.
• If none of these work, try restarting the computer.

Mac

• Hold down escape to exit full screen, if that does not do it try pressing F11 or CMD CTRL F.
• If this doesn’t work press CMD Q and be sure not to re-open closed tabs when opening the browser again. If your browser is set to do this automatically this may not work as it will simply open the tab with the popup again.
• Use CMD Option Q and close the browser through the Activity Manager.
• If none of these work, try restarting the computer.

Chromebook

If you find no solution, or these popups continue, you may want to consider clearing all the browsers data, or as a last resort uninstall then reinstall the browser.

If you have questions about how to close fake warning full screen popups, or our other services, please call or email. We’re happy to assist you! Feel free to use our contact form to send us a message. Thank you!