Fake Antivirus Products Witness Rise in Downloads

A report released by PandaLabs claims that almost 30 Million systems are affected by fraudulent antivirus products every month, generating profit of almost £7 Million for hackers.

Panda Security cautioned that the amount of infections caused by fraudulent antivirus products is increasing tremendously, achieved by making almost 7,000 variants of a new adware and circulating them across the Web. Prospective marks usually used by this kind of harmful content after searching for porn sites, replying to fake electronic greeting cards or installing software. In one of the case, which was documented by Panda, a fake Google toolbar was used to promote the scam.

These fraudulent antivirus products work by telling the users that they are infected. Pop up windows, desktops and screensavers keep emerging and stop users from using the system. The objective is to threaten users in purchasing fake anti-virus programs, for example, fake blues screens of death and cockroaches eating the desktop.

PandaLabs also added that the style of threat and technique of infection are old. It claimed that the fake and corresponding Web pages appear genuine, so if they are bought by unsuspecting users, then it is not surprising and shocking.

Also, the research reveals that the users are charged around €49.95 for the antivirus that they do not get.

Country Manager of Panda Security, UK, Dominic Hoskins said that as per their information, almost 3% of users have divulged their private details while purchasing a product that claims to disinfect their system. But, they never get the product, as reported by SCMagazine on October 16, 2008.

Hoskins also said that one of the bad things about these programs is that they are tough to disinfect. Some of the advanced users may try to disinfect them manually, but it is not a simple task. Also, it can take almost 3 days to eradicate the threat from the system. So, the users are suggested to download the latest security solution made, especially, for detecting, disinfecting and erasing all types of harmful software.

Related article: Fake Spam Mail Announces Australian PM’s Heart Attack

» SPAMfighter News - 10/22/2008