Scareware Makes Cybercrooks Hundreds of Millions Each Year

Fake antivirus and anti-spyware software, or “scareware”, now represents 23% of all malware in circulation, McAfee warns
Forget ghosts and goblins, what you should really be scared of this Halloween is “scareware.” It’s a trick that cyberscammers have been using to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars each year – and it’s no treat for computer users! 
In fact, of the 150,000 dangerous links detected, between March 2009 – May 2010, 23% were designed for distributing scareware. Scareware tricks you into believing that your computer is infected with a virus, and prompts you to purchase fake antivirus or anti-spyware software to fix the problem. It is a particularly insidious threat since it looks like real antivirus software and can trick even savvy Internet users.
This scam has been around for some time now, and it’s not going away. Using scareware, cybercriminals can achieve two goals—infecting your computer with malware or even obtaining your credit card number.
Scareware has become such big business for cybercrooks that they are now creating elaborate business operations to propagate their scams, such as setting up multinational corporations, frequently changing names and web addresses, and even offering customer support hotlines to deceive victims.
Given that fake antivirus products are so widespread, you should be on your guard and learn how these scams work, and how to avoid them.
The Hook: Scammers scare Internet users into purchasing (continue reading...)