Example System Tray Balloon Pop-up False Alerts

People that were scammed downloaded the rogue programs by choice after being tricked into believing it was legitimate. Web users fall prey to the scam when they click on links, pop-ups or flashing adverts warning them their computer was infected. The fake program then appears to run a virus check which tells the user their PC is infected and asks them to pay for it to be cleaned up.

But downloading the software can give criminals access to bank details and computer files. Symantec found 250 rogue programs were downloaded 43 million times in the 12 months to July 2009.

Analysts believe a small number of people run networks of more than 1,000 distributors whose earnings are linked to the number of machines they infect. The distributors, most of whom are in the United States, may not even realize they are acting illegally. The software may be developed in one country and then distributed in another so it is hard to track them down.

There are very few things the consumer can do. If you go to the site and try to get your money back, you will often find that it has been removed from the web or the contact information (if any) is not valid information. In so many cases with scams, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people that were infected. You can try and do a “search” by entering the website name and/or the software name. You may get lucky and find forum topics listed under your search that may contain valid contact information for you.

There are ways to spot a fake site. You should be protected from this type of malware if you keep your browser and anti-virus software up to date. If messages telling you that your PC has an infection pop up when you visit a website, simply close your browser down and use your existing anti-virus software to scan your PC.  Also, if you think a warning message on your PC is suspect, carefully check spelling and grammar — there could be a tell-tale mistake.

When you think a warning message or any pop-up is suspicious, we recommend that you run a full system scan using SuperAntiSpyware. It’s free to use and is a great addition to any anti-virus program.

Additional Information: Pop-Up Windows May Lead to Trouble [Safest way to close a pop-up ad]

Many forms of malware cause or masquerade as seemingly unrelated PC issues like Blue Screens of Death, issues with DLL files, and other serious Windows problems so it’s important to properly check your computer for malware when working to solve many problems.

Note: These are general steps to scan and remove malware from your PC and should apply to any Windows operating system.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Properly scanning your PC for viruses and other malware could take several minutes or longer

Here’s How:

1. Download and run the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. This free, Microsoft provided malware removal tool won’t find everything, but it will check for “specific, prevalent malicious software” which is a good start.Note: You may already have the Malicious Software Removal Tool installed. If so, make sure you update it using Windows Update so it can scan for the latest malware.
2. Update your anti-virus and any anti-malware software installed on your computer.Before running a virus scan or malware scan, you need to make sure the virus definitions are up to date. These regular updates tell your anti-virus software how to find and remove the latest viruses from your PC.Important: Don’t have a virus scan program installed? Download one now! There are several free anti-virus programs available so there’s no excuse for not running one.
3. Run a complete virus scan on your entire computer. If you have a dedicated malware scanner that does more than look for viruses, run a full scan using that program too.Note: Don’t simply run the default system scan which may not include many important parts of your PC. Check that you’re scanning every part of every single hard drive and other connected storage device on your computer.Important: Make sure any virus scan includes the master boot record , boot sector, and any applications currently running in memory. These are particularly sensitive areas of your computer that can harbor the most dangerous malware.

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• Detect and Remove Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers and many other types of threats.

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• Quarantine items detected and removed for complete protection. Items in the quarantine may be restored to your computer if desired.

• Detailed scan logs with complete information about detected and removed threats and their locations within your computer. Scan logs allow you to review scheduled scan results at anytime.

• Multi-Dimensional Scanning
  SUPERAntiSpyware is a next generation scanning system that goes beyond the typical rules based scanning methods. Our Multi-Dimensional Scanning system detects existing threats as well as threats of the future by analyzing threat characteristics in addition to code patterns.

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  SUPERAntiSpyware examines over 50 critical points of your system each time your system starts up and shuts down to eliminate threats before they have a chance to infect and infiltrate your system.

• Process Interrogation Technology
  SUPERAntiSpyware features our unique Process Interrogation Technology (PIT) that allows threats to be detected no matter where they are hiding on your system. Many new types of threats utilize “Rootkits” or “Kernel Drivers” to hide themselves to avoid detection by standard anti-spyware applications. SUPERAntiSpyware’s Process Interrogation Technology locates even the toughest of threats.
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Advanced SystemCare Free (formerly Advanced WindowsCare Personal) has a one-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. With over 35 MILLION downloads since 2006, this fantastic, award-winning, free PC repair software is a “must-have” tool for your computer. 100% safe with no adware, spyware, or viruses; a PC maintenance program that’s incredibly easy to use.
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• Defends PC Security with Extra Protection – Secure your PC – quickly and easily. Scans and removes spyware and adware using up-to-date definition files. Prevents spyware, hackers and hijackers from installing malicious items on your computer. Erases and updates your PC’s activity history. Security and Privacy assured!

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Complete antivirus software for free. avast! antivirus Home Edition represents the best FREE antivirus protection currently available on the market. This edition is FREE OF CHARGE for non-commercial & home use only. avast offers the best free antivirus software by far and even offers live protection as you browse online. It’s easy to setup and runs without slowing down your performance.

Anti-spyware built-in

Spyware is software installed on a computer that is designed to collect information about the computer user, often without their knowledge or consent. This can result in so called identity theft, or theft of valuable information (e.g. bank or credit card details) or proprietary business data. Spyware is often developed by organized crime rings rather than lone individuals and may be installed by a virus.

Certified by West Coast Lab’s Checkmark process, avast! has full anti-spyware capabilities built-in, to make your protection even more complete.

Anti-rootkit built-in

Rootkits are programs that install on your computer while keeping themselves and their activities hidden to remain invisible to the use. They represent a significant security risk on both home computers and company networks and are notoriously difficult to find and remove. Rootkits themselves are normally installed by a virus or other type of malware infection and it is therefore highly recommended that computer users have up to date antivirus/anti-spyware software installed and running on their computer. One such system is avast! antivirus.

Based on the class-leading GMER technology, avast! can now scan your live system for rootkit infections; no boots disks are required. If a rootkit is discovered, it is initially disabled and then if it can be safely removed without affecting the performance of the computer, it is removed. avast! antivirus includes a virus database which can be automatically updated to provide continuous protection against rootkits.

Strong self-protection

Some viruses may attempt to switch off a computer’s antivirus software. To help keep your protection working, even against the latest threats that may try to disable your security protection, avast! has best-in-class strong self-protection built in, to make sure, no matter what you face, avast! carries on protecting your valuable data and programs. This is based on the multi-award winning avast! antivirus technology and provides an extra layer of security to ensure your data and programs are always protected.

Antivirus kernel

The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses.

The kernel is certified by ICSA; and frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.

The avast! engine also features outstanding unpacking support. It can scan inside the following archives: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), MAPI (Outlook pst files), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, CAB, BZIP2, ZOO, ACE, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, CHM, RPM, ISO, 7ZIP and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, PeShield, FSG, MEW etc.).

Last, but not least, it can also scan for viruses hidden in Alternate data streams on NTFS volumes.

Simple User Interface

The Simple User Interface is used to start on-demand scanning, work with the results and change various options. Basic resident protection settings can be modified here.

The Simple User Interface is the main application of avast! 4 Home Edition. You can start additional avast! modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer.

The appearance of the Simple User Interface is very flexible. It supports so-called skins, allowing users to change the appearance of the application interface. The main package contains three skins, with additional skins available from our web pages.

Standard resident protection

Resident protection (the real-time protection of the operating system), is one of the most important parts of an antivirus program today. avast! features a powerful resident module that is able to detect a virus before it has any chance to infect your computer.

avast! Home Edition contains resident protection of the computer file system and a resident module for e-mails and news.

File system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the computer. It offers a wide range of settings, such as the possibility to specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning will include files with given set of extensions only.

E-mail/News protection consists of two independent modules; first, there is a generic scanner working on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4/NNTP protocol level. It is capable of protecting any existing e-mail client that uses these protocols. Second, there is a special plugin for MS Outlook only; the mail scanning is completely transparent, requiring no special settings.

A new feature of version 4 is heuristic analysis of e-mail scanners. This feature can protect against new, unknown viruses and worms that are not possible to detect by the usual means. The heuristic module performs a thorough investigation of every e-mail message and watches for suspicious signs, that might announce virus presence. When the number of those signs exceeds a user-defined level, the message is considered dangerous and the user is warned.

P2P and IM Shields

Avast features a module for the protection of IM (Instant Messaging, “chat”) programs, and a module for the protection of P2P (peer-to-peer) programs. The list of supported IM and P2P programs is extensive with more than 30 programs currently supported.

While chat itself would not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, today’s IM applications are far from being just chatting tools: most of them support more or less sophisticated file sharing methods – which may quite easily lead to virus infections, if not properly monitored.

The P2P protection module doesn’t need much explanation – on today’s P2P networks (such as Kazaa) there are thousands of infected files, and an effective protection is a must.

Network Shield

A new resident protection module was added to avast! 4.5: the Network Shield. This module provides protection against known Internet worms/attacks. It analyses all network traffic and scans it for malicious contents. It can be viewed as a lightweight firewall (or more precisely, an IDS (Intrusion Detection System)).

The Network Shield is only available on NT-based systems (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista).

Web Shield

Web Shield is a unique feature of avast! that enables it to monitor and filter all HTTP traffic coming from the Web sites on the Internet. Since an increasing number of viruses (and other malware, such as adware, spyware and dialers) are being distributed via the World Wide Web, the need for an effective countermeasures has also increased. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Mozilla and Opera.

Unlike most competitive solutions, Web Shield’s impact on browsing speed is almost negligible. This is because of a unique feature called “Intelligent Stream Scan” that lets the Web Shield module scan objects on-the-fly, without the need of caching them locally. Stream scanning is performed in operating memory only (without the necessity to flush the contents to disk), providing maximum possible throughput rates.

Automatic updates

Automatic updates are another need in virus protection. Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, with only new or missing data downloaded: thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a virus database update are tens of KB; program updates are typically in the hundreds of KB range.

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically at fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

Having an up-to-date virus database and antivirus program is the most certain way to protect your computer.

Virus Chest

The Virus Chest can be thought of as a folder on your disk drive, having special properties that make it a safe, isolated place suitable for storing certain files. You can work with the files in the Chest, though with some security restrictions.

The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the rest of the operating system. No outside process, such as a virus, may access the files inside, and the fact that the files inside the Chest may not be run (executable), there is no danger in storing viruses there.

System Integration

avast! antivirus features outstanding integration into your system. A scan can be started directly from Windows Explorer, by clicking a folder or a file with your right mouse button and selecting the corresponding choice from the menu.

A special screen-saver is also provided, that, when running, performs virus scanning. avast! antivirus works together with your favorite screen-saver, so you don’t have to change your personal settings to use it.

A new option with this release is the boot-time scan (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista 32bit only). This important feature allows a user to instigate scanning before a virus is activated, in the case that a virus is suspected to be active on your computer already.

Integrated avast! Virus Cleaner

Since version 4.1, avast! includes the Virus Cleaner, a tool designed for a complete removal of most common infections from already-infected computers. So now is avast! capable even to reliably heal (not only detect) the most common malware.

The number of viruses/worms supported by the Virus Cleaner is constantly growing. For the most up-to-date information we suggest to visit Cleaner’s own page (for emergency purposes we also offer the Virus Cleaner as a standalone product, capable of running without installed avast).

Support for 64-bit Windows

avast! Home/Professional now fully supports the 64-bit Windows platform. ALWIL Software is anticipating massive take-up of this platform, as Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will support up to 32 GB of RAM and 16 TB of virtual memory, enabling applications to run faster when working with large data sets. Applications can preload substantially more data into virtual memory, allowing rapid access by the 64-bit extensions of the processor. This reduces the time for loading data into virtual memory or seeking, reading, and writing to data storage devices, making applications run faster and more efficiently.

Regular (32-bit) antivirus applications are unable to operate correctly on the 64-bit Windows platform because they rely on 32-bit kernel-mode drivers. The new avast! uses native 64-bit drivers, delivering the same level of protection as in the 32-bit Windows environments. The installation package is the same for 32-bit and 64-bit versions – the setup program automatically detects the operating system it is running on, and installs all necessary files.

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