How to identify and deal with scareware

Computer viruses and their related threats are common enough and most people now have some sort of anti-virus software installed on their PCs.

But a new class of internet threat has emerged over the past few years that preys on the fears created by viruses in an attempt to scam computer users out of their money.

Such threats go by the catch-all name of ‘scareware’. This refers to internet activity that scares people into thinking their PC is unsafe.

What is scareware?
Scareware comes in many shapes and sizes. One of the most common is the pop-up advert, which will tell you that your PC has problems that need to be fixed immediately or terrible things will happen.

When you click on the advert the website will try to download a program onto your PC or take you straight to a payment page.

The former might install a virus or other nasty program, or it might appear to perform some cleaning tasks and prompt you for credit card payment.

Either way, when you provide your credit card details that card is compromised and your money is at risk.

According to anti-virus researchers, most of these scam adverts are designed to make money from users, rather than cause long-term damage.

This means it’s unlikely that clicking on one will cause damage to the PC in the form of a virus – it’s easier for criminals to hit you, then take the money and run.

A more insidious form of the scareware pop-up advert is not designed to look like an advert at all.

Instead it attempts to mimic an error message from the computer. If you click it the same thing will happen as with the more standard adverts. You will be either prompted to install a program or taken to a payment page.

There are hundreds of fake anti-virus programs. Many are run by the same criminals and are simply redesigned versions of others. When one becomes known as a scam the criminals switch to a slightly different renamed one.

There is a list on the Wikipedia entry for ‘rogue security software’ but it’s by no means exhaustive.

In fact, it can be quite hard to tell whether or not a program is real, especially when there are dozens of real anti-virus and PC security companies with equally unfamiliar names. \

For some examples of legitimate security software see our reviews.