Most experienced computer users know how adware and spyware is spread.
Typically free programs that are designed for a certain purpose such as
KaZaA (for downloading music) are bundled with other applications which
contain adware or spyware. A new threat on the scene is called
“Rogueware”, Rogueware are meaningful files which in reality can be
quite malicious. The most common type of Rogueware are fake anti
virus/adware/spyware progams that once installed, say you have lots of
viruses/malware installed and in order for the program to remove them
you must pay for the full version. In the past, these programs
typically spread by advertising on other sites with banners saying
things like “1023 Viruses detected on your computer! Click here to fix it now!”.
Recently,I spotted a pattern in posts across a few forums he visited and reported
it to us. It appears to be another method of spreading rogueware.
What makes this interesting is that Spyware
Sweeper (not to be confused with the legitimate application Spy
Sweeper) is a known Rogueware program that masquerades as a spyware
removal program which asks for money to remove the fake infection.
Typically free programs that are designed for a certain purpose such as
KaZaA (for downloading music) are bundled with other applications which
contain adware or spyware. A new threat on the scene is called
“Rogueware”, Rogueware are meaningful files which in reality can be
quite malicious. The most common type of Rogueware are fake anti
virus/adware/spyware progams that once installed, say you have lots of
viruses/malware installed and in order for the program to remove them
you must pay for the full version. In the past, these programs
typically spread by advertising on other sites with banners saying
things like “1023 Viruses detected on your computer! Click here to fix it now!”.
Recently,I spotted a pattern in posts across a few forums he visited and reported
it to us. It appears to be another method of spreading rogueware.
What makes this interesting is that Spyware
Sweeper (not to be confused with the legitimate application Spy
Sweeper) is a known Rogueware program that masquerades as a spyware
removal program which asks for money to remove the fake infection.
This same group have been doing the exact same thing on other
forums where one of them creates a post saying that they have an
infection, and the other replies recommending SpywareSweeper as if they
were a helpful forum member.
If you look at the original post on Technibbles forums located HERE. And then look at the post on VirtualDr.com’s forums located HERE. You can see that the posts are almost exactly identical.
After doing a Google Search, I can find many other forums with the exact same post.
Technical forums are still an excellent way to get some computer
help, just look at who’s giving the advice on the forum. If the person
just signed up and has a post count of 1, it might be worth double
checking what they say.
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