Fraudsters Selling Free Avast Antivirus in Cash

ALWIL Software (the company that provides free Avast antivirus) is being scammed as fraudsters through fake websites asking for money to download the program.

Consequently, as a precautionary measure, ALWIL Software is trying to draw its customers' attention towards the deceitful selling of 'Avast' occurring through various websites.

Normally, these websites present license keys to obtain free products of the Home Edition while they charge the customer for the purchase of the Professional Edition. In other cases, the invoice that the customer receives through e-mail mentions nothing about Avast. In its place, it offers a list of some other products that probably the client has not even heard of, what to mention, his willingness to buy them.

A typical sign for recognizing these fraudulent websites is that there is often an offer by these for a 'whole-life' license or a "Gold Package" - something that ALWIL Software doesn't make available within its Avast range of products.

Officials at ALWIL say that the company is seriously plagued by a problem associated with the fake sites selling free Avast's AV. Evidently, searching for an Avast product on Google often yields one of the rogue sites.

However, if ALWIL manages to disable the fake sites, another one makes an appearance. Consequently, the company has posted a whole web-page discussing the problem, which it has titled "Fraudulent sales of Avast products."

Meanwhile, ALWIL has suggested that customers should alert their credit card company without delay in case they have made a purchase on any of the rogue sites so that the transaction may be cancelled and the payment card firm may charge the site to recompense the money back to the deceitfully trapped customers.

Further, authorities have suggested that customers should access only www.avast.com to obtain the free Avast AV.

More and more spammers are offering free but phony antivirus programs to entice end-users, as in related news, the security company 'Barracuda Networks' during early June 2009 warned end-users of a fraudulent Internet site that marketed a fake spyware application named "Barracuda Anti-Virus."

» SPAMfighter News - 30-06-2009

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