Fake online anti-virus scan continue to mutate – These scam sites pretend to perform a scan of your computer & reports hundreds of infections. While these sites are not new, they are looking more professional & realistic and may fool the unsuspecting visitor into clicking on the page and wind up buying their malware:
Fake anti-virus online scan page
Pop-up warnings :
Fake Security Alert :
- Always install the latest security updates, especially for Internet Explorer. These sites exploit these security holes to automatically download malware
- Never click on anything on the page. Doing so can often download any form of malware. Don’t even click OK or Cancel if you can
- Click on the Red X (the close icon) on the upper right to close the dialog
- Better yet, kill Internet Explorer via the Task Manager:
- Control-Alt-Delete
- Click on the “Processes” tab
- Select each IEXPLORE.EXE process and click “End Process” (or Firefox.exe if you are running Firefox)
Above all else, ALWAYS run anti-virus software, and ensure it is up-to-date : AVG, Norton, CA, McAfee, Kaspersky, & Avast are common, trusted applications we recommend. If you bought a new computer, and it came with a 30, 60, or 90-day trial which has expired, be sure to renew it, or replace it with one of these software packages.