Cyber criminals make millions of pounds convincing online users to download false anti-virus software.
Symantec, the global internet security company believes that over 40 million people have become a victim of what is being termed ’scareware’ scams in the past 12 months.
So far, the firm has identified 250 versions of scareware, with some criminals thought to be earning more than £750,000 a year.
How Do They Do It?
Scareware sellers use pop up adverts designed to look like official advert of well known firms, such as Microsoft, usually when a user browses from one webpage to another telling them their PC has become infected. If a user then clicks on the pop up advert, they are transferred to another site when they can download software to sort out the ‘infected’ PC for up to £60.
This type of scam is very hard for criminal agencies to investigate as the individual transaction amounts are very small. ITE recommends using only legitimate security software that you actively want to download and not act reactively to a pop up ad. The issue is, scareware is a form of malware which cyber criminals can use to search out and acquire personal and financial information which is of growing concern.
