Millions Tricked by "Scareware"

[MidnightCowboy]

Yet another (but still interesting) view of this subject from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8313678.stm

[Anupam]

Yes, many many people have been fooled by these scareware, and have their PCs infected. Its sad, because naive and innocent people get cheated, and they even end up paying money for these fake softwares.

Just yesterday, I saw this on Raymond's blog.... and it features a tool to remove these scarewares or fake security softwares. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.xxxxxxxxxxx/blog/archives/...automatically/

The removal tool can be downloaded here:

http://freeofvirus.blogspot.com/

[Anupam]

New version 1.50 of Remove Fake Antivirus has been released. It removes all these fake antimalwares.


1. Cyber Security
2. Alpha Antivirus
3. Braviax
4. Windows Police Pro
5. Antivirus Pro 2010
6. PC Antispyware 2010
7. FraudTool.MalwareProtector.d
8. Winshield2009.com
9. Green AV
10. Windows Protection Suite
11. Total Security 2009
12. Windows System Suite
13. Antivirus BEST
14. System Security
15. Personal Antivirus
16. System Security 2009
17. Malware Doctor
18. Antivirus System Pro
19. WinPC Defender
20. Anti-Virus-1
21. Spyware Guard 2008
22. System Guard 2009
23. Antivirus 2009
24. Antivirus 2010
25. Antivirus Pro 2009
26. Antivirus 360 and
27. MS Antispyware 2009

Can be a useful tool if someone's PC has been infected with the above fake softwares.

[deya]

I read a post, last month, on the PandaLabs blog about a version of ransomware they came across, and bookmarked it. They actually cracked the code and the valid serials for it are posted on the page. There's also a video showing you just how this thing goes about it's business, it's worth watching for anyone who's not seen one of these things in action. The fake program is called 'Adware/TotalSecurity/2009'.

The blog post is here.

It's worth a read... pays to be vigilant.

deya

[J_L]

Originally Posted by deya

I read a post, last month, on the PandaLabs blog about a version of ransomware they came across, and bookmarked it. They actually cracked the code and the valid serials for it are posted on the page. There's also a video showing you just how this thing goes about it's business, it's worth watching for anyone who's not seen one of these things in action. The fake program is called 'Adware/TotalSecurity/2009'.

The blog post is here.

It's worth a read... pays to be vigilant.

deya

Interesting, I've never had one of these (luckily), even when I was a newbie using an old Norton antivirus with outdated signatures. That doesn't mean I wasn't infected though.

[WES]

Actually I am testing right now DriveSentry and Shadow Defender working together.
No scareware comes even close to leave some traces.

Working flawlessly together.

[BukkWilldd1]

Yes, deya, it does pay to be vigilant. My friend's mom had a computer that was constantly becoming reinfected with WinAntivirus 2009. We would extract it and try and teach safe computing practices, but it would always return. Strange how it would always be after the grandchildren had been using the computer. The thing eventually killed the computer since it soon needed a reformat and it didn't have a restore disk or partition. Thanks also Anupam for the link to an all purpose removal tool. Hopefully I won't need it for myself, but I have a feeling I'll be needing it for somebody.

[Anupam]

Welcome BukkWilldd1 . I thought this might be of help to someone, that's why I have posted it here.

Scarewares mostly work by, as the name suggests, scaring people. So, people who might not know much about computers are the ones that will be getting fooled by these kinds of fake softwares. They either work by flashing messages that the PC is infected, or, the PC somehow gets infected with them, and then they stop anything from working, unless the user pays and actually buys this malware.

That's why PCs may get infected after the children, or the elderly, or novices use them.

Although I think MBAM or SAS might be able to get rid of these scarewares... but Remove Fake Antivirus is made specially for the mentioned types. If you ever get the chance to see it work(I hope not), please give the feedback.
I noticed it is being updated frequently. The current version is 1.53.

[BukkWilldd1]

I know the symptoms well, Anupam. Fake desktop, handy link to the "buy it" page for the scareware. Lets see, how many times did that machine get infected before it went down? I believe three. MBAM saved me a couple of times. Some people never learn.

[Anupam]

Another small utility to remove these scarewares... called as ScareAware.

Find it here :

http://www.savemelabs.com/