Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why haven't you blocked the micrsoft virus scan yet

when browsing through adult sites some links go to the MS virus scan page which stops you doing anything to close the window. To stop it you go to the Task manager and end firefox. this means you have killed all the windows open even if they are not affected. Surely in this day and age you can recognise it and block it? It does not lock up the computer only the window it is on but there are a lot of people that will not know how to get past it so I would really like you to look into this for us. THANK YOU

when browsing through adult sites some links go to the MS virus scan page which stops you doing anything to close the window. To stop it you go to the Task manager and end firefox. this means you have killed all the windows open even if they are not affected. Surely in this day and age you can recognise it and block it? It does not lock up the computer only the window it is on but there are a lot of people that will not know how to get past it so I would really like you to look into this for us. THANK YOU

All Replies (4)

That is from your Security software doing the blocks the Browser doesn't block sites unless they been blacklisted as malware.

Note: There are Fake webpages claiming to be from Microsoft, FBI, Interpol, and anywhere else you can think of.

. Whenever you get a message / popup like that;

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE PROVIDED LINKS OR ANY PHONE NUMBERS ! !

Such messages are only Spam that could lead you to Fake Support. Not only can they damage or hack your system, they charge you to do so.

You can report such a site at; Google Report Phishing Page {web link} which is the same when done while on site by going to Help > Report Web Forgery

Help us safeguard Mozilla’s trademarks by reporting misuse {web link}

If you should end up on a 'trap' webpage (it keeps coming back even if you close the browser);

A way out of a trap page is to (force it if needed) Close Firefox. Wait about 20 seconds for Firefox to finish closing. Right-click on the Firefox icon and select Open New Window. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sometimes this works. If it opens, close it by Menu > File > Exit. This will flush out that web page from the Session Store.

Hi Willy4now, Firefox's phishing and malware protection is based on lists of bad sites. Because these scammers keep creating new sites, it is difficult for the feature to keep up.


There are a few common patterns to these annoying pages, and these are some techniques for closing them without having to take drastic measures.

The "key" (ha ha) is the keyboard shortcut for closing the current tab, which is Ctrl+w (or on Mac, Cmd+w). Try it after each action to see whether it is available yet.

(1) Large alert dialog (lots of text)

If you cancel this dialog, it may reappear. After two or three appearances, Firefox should add a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog to stop the site from showing more alerts. Check that box and click OK to block further dialogs.

(2) Authentication dialog (asks for username and password)

If you cancel this dialog, the page may reload and immediately show it again. Pressing the Esc key numerous times in a row can cancel the reload as well as the dialog.

(3) Reacting to mouse movement

Some pages have a script that detects when you are moving the mouse pointer up toward the tab bar and takes action to show another dialog, or moves to full screen view to hide the toolbar area. On these pages, the keyboard shortcut is essential.

Hopefully this will let you close problem pages without having to "kill" Firefox in the Windows Task Manager. (I don't recommend using that method because the tab will come back during automatic crash recovery anyway.)


Often these scam pages are promoted through ad networks. As a defensive measure, you could consider using an add-on that is effective at blocking ads, such as:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

As with any content blocker, this will cause problems on some sites, so keep an eye on its toolbar button in case you need to make an exception to get a page to load properly.