The Round Rock Police Department is warning residents of a fake Microsoft Windows Defender “alert” scam that is going around and targeting unsuspecting individuals through ads and links that appear to be from official online retailers.

Once an individual clicks on the link, a fake “alert” appears from Microsoft’s Defender antivirus software in a pop-up window. It also provides a phone number to call “Microsoft Technical Support.” These fake error messages are aimed to scare people into calling the scammer.

Residents are advised not to call the phone number or follow any instructions provided in the “fake” alert.

The Round Rock Police Department recommends the following tips to help protect yourself from online scams:

• Resist the pressure to act immediately.
• Only visit secure websites by looking for the “https” rather than “http” in the Web address bar.
• Be cautious of scammers spoofing the actual phone number of an organization they are attempting to impersonate.
• Never call a phone number provided to you by an unsolicited request. Instead, get an organization’s contact information from a trustworthy and secure website.
• Never pay someone who insists you pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a gift card.
• Look out for grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. Phishing messages are often poorly written.