Tag Archives: rogue anti-virus

Rogue Antivirus Victims Seldom Fight Back

July 27, 2010

Recently I came into possession of a series of documents showing the financial books of an organization that orchestrates the distribution of rogue anti-virus attacks or “scareware,” programs that hijack victim PCs with misleading security alerts in an effort to frighten the user into purchasing worthless security software. I found many interesting details in this data cache, but one pattern in the data I think explains why scareware continues to be a major scourge: Relatively few people victimized by it dispute the transaction with their bank.