Recognizing and removing scareware
The infestation of millions of computers by fake anti-malware (AKA scareware) has been a running theme in these posts because of its severity. Here’s some more information that will help you recognize and deal with this insidious and dangerous problem.
One of the most notorious Trojans called itself “Antivirus 2008″. A later version is “Antivirus 2009″. The figure below is an example screen from this malware. You can see how cleverly this malware is designed to fool you. To see some more examples of scareware, look at this post at MakeUseOf. The realistic appearance of the screens in these malicious programs makes it imperative that you familiarize yourself with any real anti-malware programs that you have installed so you can recognize legitimate warning screens.
Click any of the buttons in the screen shown above and you’ll be sorry. Note the insidious nature of offering to scan your computer for viruses and then actually infecting it.
Running the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool may get rid of these pests but not always. Another free tool to try is called Remove Fake Antivirus. Its use is described at another MakeUseOf post.
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