What is Scareware?

It's malware that scares you into installing it. They tell you that your computer may be infected and you need them to help you clean it up. They'll say things like your financial data and your personal information is at risk and they can help you clean it up.  Often, the software is totally bogus and the goal is to infect you. Sometimes it's to peddle their (lame) product. If it were such a hot product, they wouldn't have to stoop to such levels to sell software.

Often scareware products will disable your internet to frustrate you into buying their product. They change your proxy settings so that the only website you can get to is theirs so you can buy their product. How low is THAT? Pretty darn low.

Once you install the scareware, you're infected. Scareware infections can vary from relatively easy to uh oh hard to remove. I've taken care of them in less than an hour, but occasionally it renders a computer helpless and in need of a reinstall of Windows.

Best way to avoid scareware:

• Use Firefox with the adblock plus add-on.
• Research everything that pops up before you install it.
• Run your scans regularly. That way you know you are clean and won't fall for scareware.
• Be skeptical about any product you've never heard of.

Also, remember curiousity killed the cat! Kanye West wasn't in a fatal car crash. The news headlines would be filled with it. It seems celebrity deaths are a popular medium these days for malware attacks; the most popular celebrities are still with us and you would have heard about them. Strangers offering to enlighten you about Jennifer Anniston's untimely demise are cyber criminals. If someone you know sends you an attachment, generally you were expecting it or you can trust them somewhat not to mess up your computer. If someone you don't know sends you an .exe file, it probably is an attack.