Fear and Fake Anti-Virus Sites

It is an old ploy but it is still effective. The scam is a clever duplicate site to spoof legitimate businesses and genuine security products. The site visitor is duped into buying useless software:

“…Hackers are tricking people with a false warning, saying that the computer is infected with a Trojan and getting users to buy a fake anti-virus product.”

link: Experts sound scam threat warning

If you are an experience internet user, you make wonder how people fall for such a ruse. It may be surprising but, daily, people are asking what security programs should be used. The spoofing used to be poor in design or contain spelling / grammar errors. Now the level of sophistication is such that it is an exact mirror of the original site. The software is useless. The goal is to separate the buying from that individual’s cash - and hackers are experts at social engineering and manipulation.

Catherine Forsythe

*** Chris Pirillo is offering a discount on an excellent security program at the moment. And yes, it is real.