Microsoft Edge Introduces AI-Powered Scareware Blocker to Combat Tech Support Scams

Microsoft Edge Gets a "Scareware" Blocker to Stop Fake Alert Sites

Scammers Are Capitalizing on the Deepseek Hype to Steal Your Data While all scams are scary, "scareware" can be the worst of its kind, masquerading as a service to save you from a malware attack. To mitigate these types of scams, Microsoft has added a "scareware blocker" to its Edge browser, which harnesses the power of machine learning. Microsoft Edge Now Has an AI-Powered Scareware Blocker Microsoft has now rolled out its scareware blocker for the Edge browser, which leverages AI to intercept specifically scareware attempts. Scareware is a type of scam that can manipulate your browser, producing a pop-up window that informs you that your system has been infiltrated. The scammer will pose as a tech support service, such as Windows Support, and instruct you to call them immediately. Ironically, it's these phone calls that lead to the attackers being able to access and place malware onto your computer. The promising quality of Microsoft's new scareware blocker is that it allegedly notifies users quickly. This is imperative because these types of scams typically urge users to act fast, playing on your desperation to save your system from malware. How Does Microsoft's New Scareware Blocker Actually Work? According to Microsoft, the scareware blocker complements Edge's existing security feature, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which protects users from malicious sites in general. The scareware blocker differs in that it uses AI to scan new web pages for classic signs of scareware, like entering full screen mode or computer-generated audio messages. Here is how Microsoft's blog post describes the machine learning model's functionality: "The model uses computer vision to compare full screen pages to thousands of sample scams that the scam-fighting community shared with us. The model runs locally, without saving or sending images to the cloud." Scareware-type behavior will trigger a warning message from the blocker. How can you tell this warning message from a scareware pop-up? For one, a notification from Microsoft's scareware blocker will not include a tech support phone number to call. It will only let you know that the site looks suspicious, and give you the option to Close page or Continue. You should only click Continue when you know for certain that a site is safe. How to Enable Your Scareware Blocker on Microsoft Edge Microsoft's new scareware blocker is still in preview mode, but you can enable the preview in your browser's settings: Open Microsoft Edge and head to Settings. Select Privacy, search, and services. Toggle the slider on next to Scareware blocker. While it can be challenging to differentiate which security warnings are real and which are fake, a good rule of thumb is to use caution around phone numbers and links. Whenever a security notification includes a contact number, cross-check it with a cursory Google search. For example, if you're instructed to contact Microsoft Support, make sure the number aligns with what's listed on Microsoft's official website. And if you're not able to open another browser tab to do that search, then -- that's another tell-tale sign of a scam.

Microsoft Edge Can Now Block Annoying Full Screen Pop-Ups

Have you ever been scrolling along, minding your own business, when an ad suddenly hijacks your page with a full-screen warning about a computer virus or account insecurity? These are invariably scams, but to the untrained eye, they could look like a genuine pop-up from a firewall. That's why Microsoft Edge is using AI to help users spot when someone's trying to frighten them into downloading malware or giving up sensitive information. Available now to all users via a preview, the browser's new "Scareware blocker" is an AI-based tool for dismissing and navigating away from these troublesome interruptions. While Edge's built-in Defender SmartScreen tool already blocks known scams, the idea is for Scareware blocker to help address new threats. The tool uses a local AI model to detect when your browser enters full screen mode, a staple of scareware pop-ups, and then examines what you're looking at to see if it resembles a scam. It's been trained on "thousands of sample scams that the scam-fighting community shared" with Microsoft, and supposedly doesn't save images or send them to the cloud at any point. While users can manually hold the ESC key to exit full screen mode at any point, the model will do this for you, taking a screenshot of the site and moving you over to a page that warns you that it looks suspicious. You'll then have the option to either close the page or continue. In addition to helping protect users susceptible to scams, Scareware blocker also sets out to reduce some of the panic of coming across one of these ads, as they'll often also play loud noises and hide the mouse cursor. By quickly closing them out and taking you to a warning page, the feature aims to help you regain your senses. While I have encountered these ads before, I wasn't able to summon one up while trying to test out the feature, but it's easy enough to enable. Simply navigate to Settings > Privacy Search and Services and scroll down a bit until you see the Scareware blocker toggle. Switch it on, and you'll be prepared the next time a scammer tries to scare you into selling yourself out. If you don't see the toggle, it's possible you might need to update Edge (in Settings > About Microsoft Edge) or restart the browser.

Microsoft Edge update adds AI-powered Scareware Blocker

Microsoft Edge 133 is now rolling out globally, and it ships with several improvements, including a new scareware blocker feature. In addition, Microsoft is updating the backend of the Downloads UI with performance improvements. For those unaware, "scareware scams" are also known as tech support scams and they trick victims with alarming web pages claiming their device is infected. Scammers then pressure them to call a fake support number and gain remote access. Microsoft has been testing an AI-powered scareware blocker feature for a while now. Starting with version 133, you can finally turn it on from Edge's Settings. Unlike Defender SmartScreen, which is designed to protect users as well, Edge's new AI/ML-based scareware blocker works in real-time because it understands the content on the web page. "The model uses computer vision to compare full screen pages to thousands of sample scams that the scam-fighting community shared with us. The model runs locally, without saving or sending images to the cloud," Microsoft noted in a blog post. In addition to the scareware blocker, Edge's downloads UI has now been rewritten in WebUI 2.0, which means faster performance. With WebUI 2.0, Microsoft is building an entirely new markup-first architecture that minimizes the size of code and the amount of JavaScript code that runs during the initialization path of the UI. This new internal UI architecture is more modular and allows Microsoft to ship new browser features faster. After Edge 133, Downloads UI should load faster, but you'll not notice any UI changes. To try the Scareware blocker and faster Downloads UI, update Edge to version 133 from Settings > About.