fake antivirus software

Never at a loss to cook up new and ingenious scams, cyber-criminals are using increasingly persuasive online scare tactics to convince users to purchase rogue security software.
Rogue security software, also known as “scareware,” pretends to be legitimate security software but actually provides little or no value and may even install malicious code on a user’s computer.
According to the recently released Symantec Report on Rogue Security Software, there are two main ways in which rogue security software is installed on a computer: either it is downloaded and installed manually by a user after he or she has been tricked into believing that the software is legitimate, or it is unknowingly installed onto a computer when a user visits a malicious website.
Rogue security software is advertised in a variety of locations, including malicious and legitimate Web sites such as blogs, forums, social networking sites, and adult sites. While legitimate Web sites aren’t a party to these scams, they can be compromised to advertise these rogue applications.
Rogue security software sites may also appear at the top of search engine indexes if scam creators have seeded the results (see “What You Need to Know About Search Engine ‘Poisoning.’”)


full story

http://www.symantec.com/business/re....jsp?aid=20090113_dont_be_bamboozled_by_rogue

 

Can't stand them - these programs can be among the hardest to clean out of a machine...

Ought to shoot the bastards...:boxing

 

Ditto. I call such programs "extortion-ware" as most of them want you to pay money to buy their "program" to get rid of the "infections" on their machines . . . grrrrr.

I can't count the number of computers brought to me with this kind of crap on it . . . :mad

I think shooting is too good for the creators of such scams . . .

 

Urgh. That's what my computer-illiterate friend got on her laptop last time she needed help. Antivirus Professional 2010 or something like that... took forever to get rid of. Though not nearly as long as I expected, the Read & Run in the malware forum helped a lot.

 

Yes, one of my managers got his LT infected by "Windows security Centre" or some such! It had disabled TM, regedit and msconfig. MBAM found and cleaned but the stuff came back on reboot! Sat in the sys tray and popped up every now and then. Booted to a Live CD and removed the critter. Booted to windows and let MBAM handle the rest. Toggled sys restore and things were back to normal. Could have remnants in the reg but I did not bother LOL

Cheers.

 

Sorry edit time out.
Could have directed him to MG Malware Removal but Chas, Tim and Kes, would have pulled their hair out. Prolly have 15 posts exchanged, before removal process began!!

 

Egad!! That comes across sounding way wrong:-o What I meant to say was- that guy would have had issues following the "Read And Run Me" knowing him. Yikes, this is embarrassing:-o

 

Uh, oh - you've stepped on it, now...beware the wrath of the Malware Brigade!
:eek