Report: Fake Antivirus Programs Claim 30 Million Victims

[Saint_Michael 3]

I know everyone here on trap has seen those anti-virus ads that do those fake scans and force those pop up ads to make you go buy their scareware. Which is the tecnical term for software vendors or hackers to scare you into buying their products in order to solve your problem. what I found really interesting about this article that their are over seven thousand variations to this scareware tactic, and the odds are those 30 million people are the onlys that barely know about a computer or how to properly secure and making sure their personal information isn't floating around somewhere.

 

Of course I found this to be an interesting part of the article:

 

A recent study by the Psychology Department of North Carolina State University revealed that most Internet users don't exercise much caution when presented with fake dialog boxes and pop-up windows with obvious warning signs of malware. Additionally, security software maker AVG found earlier this year that men tend to be much more confident about their online security knowledge than women, but they both end up suffering from identity theft in equal amounts. It just goes to show that even when users talk the talk, they don't always walk the walk when it comes to being safe online.

Now granted I am no security expert in any way, but I do know enough about what needs to be on your computer in terms of protection and how not to get your hand caught in the cookie jar. However, I do find it hilarious that it was mostly the men that get caught in this scareware scam Basic computer security is not that hard to grasp, just install a security suite that has everything you need, keep it updated, don't fall for stupid email scams or scareware scams etc etc and you won't have all these problems.

 

SOURCE

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[jlhaslip 4]

Switch to Linux and the potential for Virii pretty much disappears.

[Evolix 1]

AntiVirus 2009 is the most known fake antivirus program, I've had it on my computer before. I've found a way to remove it :)Anyway, speaking about AVG, does this mean that AVG is one of those fake antivirus programs?

[Bluebear 0]

I have used McAfee SecurityCenter for ages, but it has expired so today I searched at google for a free one. I found AVG, thought it looked pretty good... Have not installed it yet, so this thread was perfect timed to say it that way.

[Variablez 0]

Woah! That many people scammed with anti virus software! Appaling! I have used many in my life but I didnt know that so many where viruses! Its also hard to believe that they are fake because they have 5 stars from users and good comments and also good genuine names and are on sites like download.com etc. but to make one fake to hack people is just childish. I mean 30 million victims have experianced this trauma, who knows what they might have had on their pc, babies photos, work documents, anything private, all that is gona due to 1 stinking virus antivirus fake software.... this should be stopped and we should have better scanners to tell us and also genuine people who actually say the truth! Thats just a waste of time and effort. I spit on the people who made them fake virus scanners!

[xpress 0]

Yes, I had seen many. When I opened a site, suddenly a pop up appear says that, my computer had infected by dangerous viruses or it has some critical errors. Really they are annoying. They are fake and meaning less. They didn't scan our system, and even can't access it. But the ads shows that, we have viruses and errors and need to buy their software. This is cheating. But I never thought that users fall for that. Hmmm....In the past, they were victims of only viruses, but nowthey were victims of antiviruses also. I don't think installing a complete security suite will solve all the problems. And these so called security suites are costly also. The free antiviruses are not providing complete security. They are just providing basic security, and advertising their other products. And forcing us to buy their complete security suites or we'll be attacked by so and so viruses and hackers. Innocent people falls for that. The only solution is awareness, more awareness among users. And the more interest they have in security, the more safe they will be.

[Saint_Michael 3]

I have used McAfee SecurityCenter for ages, but it has expired so today I searched at google for a free one. I found AVG, thought it looked pretty good... Have not installed it yet, so this thread was perfect timed to say it that way.

Woah! That many people scammed with anti virus software! Appaling! I have used many in my life but I didnt know that so many where viruses! Its also hard to believe that they are fake because they have 5 stars from users and good comments and also good genuine names and are on sites like download.com etc. but to make one fake to hack people is just childish. I mean 30 million victims have experianced this trauma, who knows what they might have had on their pc, babies photos, work documents, anything private, all that is gona due to 1 stinking virus antivirus fake software.... this should be stopped and we should have better scanners to tell us and also genuine people who actually say the truth! Thats just a waste of time and effort. I spit on the people who made them fake virus scanners!

You two are misquoting what I am saying not all anti-virus software is bad, McAfee, AVG, Nortan, kaspersky, the anti-virus software you need to look out for are websites showing images of them scanning your computer or you get a pop up saying your computer might be infected. So blearblue I recommend installing AVG on your computer to give you some protection as it won't hurt your computer in anyway.

Variablez the problem is though their is no way to protect a computer from a virus no one knows about and if it is a new new virus or an updated version the security companies have to find it quick and make a patch for it. Although security companies have block some of the biggest ones its the users who for these traps and smartly conceived in order to trick you into giving the virus writers access to your computer.

[dragonfang00 0]

for me, one of the most secured way of downloading genuine antivirus is to download them on their official websites and not from any file hosting website.. I mean, if they are a genuine antivirus and is making profit of their software, they should have their own website.. for me I am using mcAfee security center and I am glad I have their antivirus because it already helped me many times..but if you followed an untrusted antivirus be aware.. ask first from friends, or forums if that antivirus is safe.. Saint_Michael is right too. you should avoid website's who is forcing you to buy their antivirus products and saying that you have a virus even if your computer doesn't have any.. one way is to be cautious.. being cautious won't hurt your computer.. it may even help..

[iGuest 3]

personal antivirus great scam

 

Report: Fake Antivirus Programs Claim 30 Million Victims

 

This afternoon on June 11, 2009 an uninvited Personal Antivirus program came to bluff me about my pc infected with hundreds of Trojan Virus and Worms. It asked me to buy their software to erase such Trojan Virus and Worms and it meant that I would have to disclose my credit card identity to pay for it, right? My McAfee Total Protection which I bought from my pc store in person last year to be installed in my pc had quarantined several Trojans and I was asked to remove the generic fakealerts created by the same Personal Antivirus program when I clicked on Restore stated in my McAfee Total Protection navigation column. You'd see Personal Antivirus is created by a group of hackers who is well-versed in software programming and they are out to scam everyone they could lay hand on. Please report such problem to all bloggers worldwide that such an old method of scam has emerged again and they'd always change name to avoid detection. They are the devils and they are the angels as well. Do not reveal your credit or debit card numbers to such scammers. Do not log onto other sites to look for a purchase of Trojan Removal Tools at all. Just follow my instructions first. Please inform all your banks to freeze your account for a time being without further delay if you did a mistake. It may be difficult to check where they hide their illegal program in our registry. I managed to remove their scammers' program by clicking on "Start" at the task bar to look for "Help and Support� and clicked �Undo changes to your computer with System Restore" to do time-travelling back one day when I failed to find anything in the "Control Panel" to check for Personal Antivirus icon possibly being downloaded inside "Add or Remove Programs". It was unlikely inside there because I didn't download such program at all. Please change all passwords of your Google, Yahoo, MSN and many others once you have successfully removed such scam by my suggestion of "System Restore". To prevent inconsiderate intrusion again, please enable firewall when you switch off your computer. Do not worry about your business website as the datacenter of your hosting company is protecting your online business data all the time. Be wary of more such future scams. Please spread the news to others as I did for you. You�d see, such scammers have ready Customer Support Specialist to take advantage of loophole of the International Law concerning internet matter. I threatened their �support team� and they emailed to me very soon but I had restored my system earlier back to normal. Don�t be so kind to such rude internet marketers at all, if they are real. But in this case, they�re simply hypocrites and scary! They are disturbing our peace and our business with too much climbing over our heads. If they have shops selling Personal Antivirus Software, must they resort to such filthy act to create so much nonsense to tarnish the image of their own lucrative business? Believe it or not, I suspect many other software companies are willing to help you remove Personal Antivirus are themselves behind all these business tricks. Just be careful!They sent me an email finally when I threatened them with something but Anna Hamilton is a fake, see below:To limsengchee@gmail.ComDate Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 5:39 PMSubject [#218770] Re: Personal Antivirus product inquiryMailed-by globalmailsupport.Com[#218770] Re: Personal Antivirus product inquiryDear customer,Thank you for contacting Customer Support Center.Please follow my instructions to uninstall Personal Antivirus1.Open My computer, choose Disk C;2.Find C:Program FilesCommon FilesUninstallPAVUninstall.Lnk3.Run the Uninstall file.4.Reboot your computer.There are other options to find the uninstall file:-paste the following string to Windows Explorer address bar and execute it (Press Enter key):C:Program FilesCommon FilesUninstallPAVUninstall.Lnk orStart->Run->C:Program FilesCommon FilesUninstallPAVUninstall.LnkAfter that our product will be removed.If you have any questions concerning our software, please contact our Customer Support Service.Anna HamiltonCustomer Support Specialist(Where is her company�s address for contact? However, I managed to trace their IP. As shown below)Adress izmenilsa! Ispolzuyte http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ izmenilsa! Ispolzuyte http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ - Cached - Similar -McAfee Visual Tracer shows the most probable route of data taken from the source computer from Dallas to yours. Dallas, TX maps.Google.ComMap of Dallas, Texas difficult to download here, sorry!The culprits may belong to a team of software programmers who are well-versed in creating softwares for committing identity thefts and not long ago, they sent me an email notifying me that Asia Registry had charged me for maintenance of domain names and web hosting plans I am owing to. They have stolen my hardware data to know about my registration matter with Asia Registry. In actual fact, I have no dealing with Asia Registry at all. I replied to them I do not reveal my credit/debit card numbers to email requests which went into my spam folder and after I threatened them I would send this email hoax to an appropriate authority for further investigation, they managed to make their email disappeared from my email spam and I still wondered whether I discarded it by accident. It is not surprising if they have the software to make it disappeared if I did not archive it in time. Next time, I would archive it for my evidence against any scammer. I would like to share with all possible potential victims and victimized netizens of Personal Antivirus nuisance to be wary of such scams and if we all report to Dallas Governor to check it out, it would be of a great help to all. Does the saying One stitch in time saves nine�more victims every second makes sense to us? Such unscrupulous act or serious and gross unethical conduct cannot be acceptable in any society because it destroys our peace and happiness in life like terrorism. Their evil act gives Dallas of the United Sates of America a real bad name for a long time! hey! Victims! Let us gather together to complain this to Dallas Governor!-reply by James@mailingsimple.com>

[iGuest 3]

Regarding Antivirus ProgramsReport: Fake Antivirus Programs Claim 30 Million VictimsThese days, all well-known Internet service providers in any part of the world should provide excellent antivirus programs like McAfee and Norton for an affordable monthly fee for their subscribers. Here, subscribers do not get into the hassles of buying antivirus softwares in the usual CDs sold in our PC shops to be installed in our computer(s). By right, when we subscribe to gain access to the internet, sales promoters should inform customers of their excellent antivirus programs approved by our Internet service providers but some would fail to open their mouths to promote their latest products. Please spread such knowledge to the newbies of the availability of such legitimate offers around the world right now before the numbers of hackers and scammers are growing rapidly everyday and everynight emerging to keep tricking next newbies again and again. The sales promoters should verbally and briefly educate all subscibers how to use their antivirus programs including how to remove fake antivirus programs and many others if they couldn't read the written instructions provided. Customers must be advised to contact their antivirus program support team should there be some difficulties about removing real or fake virus problems appearing in their computer(s) suddenly out of nowhere. If you have some doubts of of what I am trying to say, please type SingTel.Com into your web browser and click search to see an example right after this long paragraph and contact SingTel for more info about their McAfee antivirus programs. SingTel offering such McAfee antivirus programs is cheaper than buying your antivirus softares in PC shops. Perhaps, you may like to check it out with the Internet access providers in your own country. Do not buy any unknown antivirus program through online either through web browser or email links because hackers and scammers are good at phishing scams and creating links to bring us to false and stolen business websites/browser windows which may even belong to governments and recognized banks. Legitimate business websites usually have special well-known lock icon below their status bar and legal certificate(s) to certify their legitimacy. Please click on the lock icon for more reliable info. Moreover, a company address and telephone number(s) should be clearly stated for us to contact them personally. And please do so to contact them for more info and advice. Do not be complacent because identity theft can cause you a great fortune to unnecessarily enrich such scumbags. These scumbags are usually wealthy IT programmers who developed their expertise in the area of computer programming and hacking, not an ordinary newbie at all. They take advantage of the Internet Law's many loopholes to enrich themselves. They are an absolute hypocrite if you have seen them. I hope all the major search search engines would do something to warn and remind all their subscribers what to do before our browser window appear in the computer by our click each time. The warning notice shouldn't take more than 5 seconds to remind us of security threat and what to do first without panic. The saying More haste less speed should make you understand my key points.SingTel.Com - Consumer - Internet 6-month SingNet Security Suite (Powered by McAfee) ... SingTel Movies Channel (Ch 317) allows unlimited access to 4 movie titles (consisting of English and ...http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ --reply by James