Faced with skyrocketing complaints about tech-support scams, Microsoft is turning to artificial intelligence to identify the masterminds behind the fraud. Besides prettying up iPhone photos and blitzing Ms Pac-Man, Microsoft’s AI is helping fight the real-world problem of tech-support scams, whose operators are increasingly using the web to automate the fraud with pop-up ads that lock browsers to a bogus but seemingly legitimate security warning.
These so-called ‘browser lockers’ aim to frighten victims into calling a support center at a number listed on the pop-up. Victims who do call are bullied into buying software to fix non-existent problems.