Microsoft has introduced a new scareware blocker in its Edge browser this week.
This AI-powered feature, available on Windows PCs, is designed to spot and stop scams—both old and new—using a local machine learning model.
According to Microsoft, the scareware blocker acts as an extra layer of protection for users. If a scam tries to open a full-screen page, the feature will detect it and take action. The local machine learning model uses computer vision to compare the page with thousands of known scam examples shared by the community. It runs directly on your computer without sending or saving any images online.
When a scam is detected, Microsoft Edge will automatically exit full-screen mode, stop any audio from playing, and show a warning with a thumbnail of the page. You can then report the scam, and it will be added to Microsoft’s Defender SmartScreen service, which helps prevent users from visiting known scam sites.
First announced in November at Ignite, the scareware blocker is now available as a preview in the latest stable version of Edge. To try it out, you’ll need to turn on the feature manually in Edge’s privacy settings and restart the browser.
