Sky News have featured this today but it is by no means a new phenomenon as anyone who cares to run a search on You Tube will soon find out.
The way it works is that simply by clicking on an often seemingly innocent link or advert, this then launches what on the face of it looks like a genuine virus scanner. This inevitably reveals a host of problems on your PC and then offers up the solution - a downloadable program which they say will remove the infection, at a price. The reality is that this is where the problems start. The virus scanner that warned you of the danger is just a clever animation, and often whatever you do in terms of closing windows will not end the sequence.
One sure fire way out is to open the
Windows Task Manager by depressing
CTRL-Alt-Del (up to and including Windows XP) or
CTRL-Shft-Esc (Vista). Then just highlight the item and click
End Task.
Another way is to activate the Internet lock on your onboard anti-virus program, which will then allow the windows to be closed in the normal way.
Just quoting Sky's report, the more common rogue anti-virus programs are:-
1.) SpywareGuard2008
2.) AntiVirus 2008
3.) AntiVirus 2009
4.) Spyware Secure
5.) XP AntiVirus
This list isn't comprehensive but the bottom line is that if you should happen across one of the fake alerts,
do not click to save the offered file. If all else fails I would suggest physically removing the internet cable from the back of the PC or pulling the other end out of the wall. This will give you the opportunity to disable the rogue program.
Obviously it is important to keep your onboard security software up to date and for Windows users to ensure that they either keep Microsoft Automatic Updates turned on or regularly visit the Microsoft download site to check for updates.
Anyone who either doesn't have or resents paying for anti-virus software would do well to check out one of the many free - but genuine - programs that are available.
Obviously you need to decide what is right for you but the obvious ones that immediately spring to mind are:-
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Avira Anti-Vir Personal
Avast Home Edition
All of these and more can be downloaded from CNet/Download.com
(Link)AVG was the favoured option at a company that I used to work for. Rosefriend uses Avira and is very happy with it and I was using Avast for a couple of weeks recently whilst I resolved a compatibility issue with my (paid for) ZoneAlarm product.
There are also a couple of anti-spyware/malware programs worth having, namely Spybot Search & Destroy which can be downloaded via
this link[/b][/url] and Malware Bytes which can be downloaded
from here.
So to quote Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues: "Hey, let's be careful out there!"
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