If you get a warning on your computer that it is infected or loaded with a virus... beware

If you get a warning on your computer that it is infected or loaded with a virus... be careful. The warning is tricking many people into buying bogus software and infecting their computers.

You see a warning that your computer has a virus, and your first instinct is to click on the box to get rid of it.

Steve Middlebrook and his wife learned the hard way that in this case your first instinct will get you in trouble.

He says when his wife clicked on an anti virus warning on her computer, she thought she was buying software that would protect the computer. But she bought something much worse.

Middlebrook says, “When she got home she checked out the program on our computer to verify the status of it, it was not even on our computer.”

But what did show up was a bill for $130 from a company called Creativity-soft.com. Apparently, she followed a link to a website that appeared to sell anti virus software.

Middlebrook says, “I called the phone number, nothing happens, no ring, no sounds, nothing.”

Middlebrook contacted his bank and disputed the charge.

He was lucky because Ken Colburn with Data Doctors in Phoenix says the results are often much worse.

“If you click on those buttons it starts to install all this malicious stuff into your computer and it's really hard to get rid of,” says Colburn.

Colburn also says the scammers have an upper hand... they know all the tricks to being successful.

“In our stores for the last probably two years, about 40 to 50 percent of the machines that we were working on are badly infected with these social engineering tactics, with these fake anti virus programs,” says Colburn.

So if you get one of these pop-ups don't click on it, don't even click on the X to close it.

Colburn says, “Do a control, alt, delete which will bring up the task manager and you can end that process manually.”

He also says to make sure you have anti-virus software and run it.