Antivirus 2008—harmful not Helpful 

The internet has become quite a mirror of the real world.  All the benefits, as well as all the dangers exist, but at hyper speed.  It is unfortunate that many people think of themselves as being essentially safe on the World Wide Web.  Though no one can put a gun in your face or kill you as yet through your computer screen, they can come close enough.  They can cause harm to your computer, and your bank account.  Scam artists are prevalent on the internet, and some of the most harmful are those who send out “fraudware.”  Antivirus 2008 is an example of this scheme.

Essentially, what they do is make your computer sick by infecting it with a virus, then charge you money to “fix” your problems.  Of course they don’t ever fix your problems they just give a placebo.  The infection goes dormant, and then goes active after a while.  Guess who’s there with another placebo in exchange for more money?  Antivirus 2008. Even worse, they sometimes will offer a “20% discount,” only to continue charging money on your bank account well after the initial transaction.

Originally, with just a little bit of skepticism and common sense, these fraudulent programs were easy enough to expose.  For instance, why would SpySheriff be an affiliate of Windows, but not bear the Windows logo?  For that matter, why would Windows “affiliate” with another company, when they could just make their own antivirus?  Someone eventually wised up to this, and dressed the same technology in Windows clothing.

It’s still the same scam.  You click on a hyperlink trap, and Antivirus 2008 downloads onto your computer.  It pops up a window, counting your temporary files, but calls them viruses.  Depending on how well you keep up with deleting your temporary files, it could show that you have THOUSANDS of viruses!  Scary, huh?  Think of it this way:  One or two viruses could cause your computer to slow down, “hiccup,” and get locked up.  Maybe you’ll even get the “blue screen of death.”  If you had thousands of viruses, your computer would not ever get past booting Windows.  You may not even be able to boot in Safe Mode.

This window will also tell you that in order to kill all these viruses, you will have to upgrade to the “registered version.”  This costs, on the average, $50, unless they decide to keep drawing more money from your bank account once they have the link.  As before, this “registered version” is only a placebo.  The active elements of the virus, the ones that lock up your computer, merely go quiet for a while.  Then they go active again, and the process repeats itself.

Okay, so the only difference now is that these viruses like Antivirus 2008 disguise themselves as Windows products.  How can they be avoided?  It’s pretty easy for the most part, really.  Set your Windows Automatic Updates on, and don’t trust anything that claims to be Windows.  If your computer needs a Windows product, you will get it without even thinking about it.  Beyond that, make sure that you have a top shelf antivirus program.