CSRSS.EXE is NOT a Trojan–Windows help phone scam!

Help me impede the scammers!

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Quick Disclaimer:  Yes, there IS a virus or trojan that uses the name csrss.exe, BUT……….

There’s a phone scam going on where someone from India calls you up from out of the blue, claiming to be from Microsoft support, responding to your computer problem (which you may or may have not put in a request for help… usually not), then scamming you to give them control of your PC, where they trick you into buying fake warranties for many hundreds of dollars, while also stealing your financial information and all your passwords.  They’ll give you tons of fake evidence that your computer is infected with trojans and viruses.

Part of their success lies in the fact that while they have remote control of your PC (that you were tricked into giving them), they’ll use your PC to Google for csrss.exe then the first link in the search results claims that it is a trojan virus.  IT IS NOT!  csrss.exe is a core part of Windows.  However, it’s likely true that some trojans disguise themselves as csrss.exe.  BUT, 100% of all Windows PCs have a LEGITIMATE file called csrss.exe.  If you have the file, AND YOU DO (if you’re running Windows)!, it does not mean you have a virus or a trojan.  You absolutely have to have this file or your system will not function.

What can you do to help me impede the scammers?

This may sound self serving, admittedly, but I need you to search for csrss.exe on Google and NOT click anything except a link to this page, right here.  That will push this page up in the Google rankings.  Why?  Because when the scammers are pulling up the csrss.exe search in Google on their next victim’s PC, hopefully the victims will see THIS search result and put a stop to the scam.

If it makes you feel better, I’ll even refrain from putting any advertisements in this article.  It’s more important that we stop the scammers than I make a couple cents over a year or so (and yes, if I had an ad on this page, I’d only be getting a few pennies PER YEAR, if anything at all!)

Also, please share this article in whatever form you can to spread the word about the scam and to encourage others to do the same with the search rankings.

Have you received a similar call from these people?

Let us know in the comments.

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