Antivirus Plus—Sham Antivirus
Antivirus Plus is yet another in a long list of deceptive programs called corrupt security tools. This program pretends to be an antivirus program that just suddenly appears and lets you know that it just happened to see you get infected with viruses.
A good rule of thumb to observe is that unless you have it on your computer, it’s not going to be there to protect you. There is no one monitoring your activity to see you get infected and come to the rescue. Especially these guys.
Corrupt security tools are in reality a bundle of spyware programs with a mock security program, either antivirus or anti-spyware, and a sales page. They only have one goal: They want your money, and you’re not getting anything you want back.
You can usually encounter rogue security software on infected websites and in infected downloads. The downloads are typically easier to avoid than the websites. More often than not, they are from peer to peer file sharing groups and pirated material.
Some peer to peer, or P2P, websites have been banned from the Internet for this reason, as well as for copyright violation. Grokster is the most famous case of this occurring. I have it on good authority that it’s not even safe for legal reasons to browse to grokster.com.
This goes into another issue with Internet piracy. Not only do you stand to get infected by a variety of Internet parasites, but it’s illegal, simply put. All viruses and spyware aside, there is a very real risk of being arrested by the FBI. It’s just not worth it.
The websites are a bit more difficult than the downloads to avoid. Though it could be said that the websites tend to be adult-oriented, the reality of the situation is that any site could be cloned and infected. It’s also a fact that every rogue program has a home page that is infected. If you get infected at one of the other sites, you will usually get redirected to one of several pages that host the sales page.
The pathology among rogue security tools is pretty much the same for them all. It starts when you click a button on the infected site or download. Then a pop-up, which I call a “warning screen,” will try to convince you that you’ve just been flooded with viruses. One or two viruses can nearly cripple a computer; imagine what hundreds could do. In all likelihood, if you had hundreds of viruses, your computer wouldn’t be able to tell you.
What it’s calling viruses are actually your temporary files. These are only a record of your browsing habits. They are not viruses.
It will then redirect you to one of its sales sites and say that it can clean your infection if you buy the full version. Given the sales pitch so far, a person could easily be panicked into giving in. That’s when the worst part comes.
Once they have your credit card information, they give you a mock up of an antivirus program. In exchange, you’ve just thrown away at least $50, if not your whole account. Don’t give in to this pitch.
