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The hackers and scammers of the world never seem to take a break. There’s a very dangerous Chrome Update related scam that’s making the rounds right now.
In a nutshell, the scam works by either spawning a pop-up on your PC or sending you an email saying you need to click a link in order to install an important security-related update on your Chrome browser.
If you click that link you’ll immediately be taken to a malicious web page that will download malware onto your computer.
This is an easy scam to avoid as long as you always remember to never attempt to update Chrome or any other browser via a third-party website. Always install any pending browser updates manually using the update tool that’s actually built into the browser.
Most browsers install updates automatically every time you open them when an update is pending. If you rarely close your browser you can update it at any time via the browser’s “About” page. To check for pending updates for Chrome you would follow these steps:
1 – Open Chrome and click the three dots in the top-right corner of the window.
2 – Click Help > About Google Chrome.
The moment you land on the About page Chrome will check for pending updates. If an update is available it will be downloaded automatically. You will then be prompted to relaunch Chrome to finish installing the update.
The update process works much the same way for other browsers as well. Just go into the settings and navigate to the “About” page and the browser will take it from there.
Again, if you receive any type of warning that you need to update your browser, it’s best to assume it’s a scam. But just to make sure you can always use your browser’s own update tool (via the About page) to check for and install any pending updates.
If you need instructions for checking for pending updates for a different browser just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.