FAKEAV Targeting Windows 7 in New Scam

According to an alert released by security researchers at Panda Security, users of Windows 7 should watch out for 'scareware' or fake anti-virus (FAKEAV) software attacking Microsoft's new OS in another malicious scam.

The scam that arrives as a pop-up window tells the user that there is a malware on his Windows 7 computer, a trick to defraud the user. Thereafter, the window displays an offer to clean the infection that actually does not exist by asking the user to pay for a malware-removal product

The perpetrators of the scam have put considerable efforts to imitate the appearance of Windows 7 so that it looks original, said the security company.

In a post to a personal blog, Sean-Paul Correll, Threat Researcher at PandaLabs, writes that he found an interesting scareware scam as he was exploring the Blackhat Friday SEO campaign. Unlike from the usual scareware scams, cyber criminals of the current one had optimized it to exploit people, who used the perfectly novel Microsoft Windows 7 OS, via the emulation of its feel and appearance, said Correll.

Correll continues that the website also makes a fake copy of the explorer shell of Windows 7. Along with the pop-up, there is a white-colored screen configured to the site's background so that an illusion is created of Windows 7 pop-up as a system running differently from other processes on the PC only, rather than something within the website's center, adds Correll.

Moreover, recent reports suggest that Windows 7 has been a subject of controversy right from its launch. Some days ago, SophosLabs claimed that the OS was susceptible to 80% of viruses that the security company tested. A zero-day flaw was also discovered in Windows 7 that an attacker could exploit to deceive end-users into accessing a malicious website.

According to the investigators, the FAKEAV programs are so persuasive as well as effective that they have already fooled numerous computer-users into paying money for bogus, malicious software.

Related article: FAKEAV Programs Trouble Computer Users

» SPAMfighter News - 12/5/2009