Rogue Security Software

In 2008, fake security software commonly known as "rogueware" or "scareware" became epidemic. As of recently, tens of millions of computers are infected each and every month. There are literally thousands of legitimately named rogueware products floating around just waiting to sneak into your computer and take your money by making you pay for the "full" version.

They usually sell for anywhere between $9.99 to $99.9. Some of them even come with monthly subscription options. Cyber criminals are making insane amounts of money off of these products, to an estimated figure of over 30 million dollars per month.

Most of the victims are not even aware of what is happening and they are unable to tell the difference between a legitimate security software application and a fake one.

Scammers are always looking for a way to fool and massively exploit the general public. They work day and night to produce all kinds of "badware", and fake security software is just one of the tools from their never ending arsenal.

Unfortunately, it seems like they've finally hit the jackpot with it.

How Does Rogueware Work?

Once in your system, fake security software will start to bombard you with high priority alerts and emergencies. Quite often, everything from the screen will disappear and the only thing left for you to see would be the newly emerged window prompting you to pay for a full version and remove the fictive threats. This does not mean that your computer is not infected with anything else, in fact, if rogueware is present on your computer, chances are that something else is as well.

The most easiest way to "catch rogueware" and become infected is to click a pop-up offer on a malicious website and install the application which may in the first place seem as a completely trustworthy security package.

The names such as IE AntiVirus, Windows XP AntiVirus 2010, Windows Vista AntiMalware, or Spyware Remover 2011 can be so convincing that it really is hard to spot a fake.





Check out the Top Rated AntiVirus Software guide for a list of currently highest rated security packages.

How to Remove Rogueware?

To remove a fake security application, you will obviously need a real one. Some of the rogueware go even beyond what they were initially designed to do. To steal your money. Going beyond means that it might:

Disable important Windows updates

Send spam from your computer without you even being aware

Make you spread the application by recommending itself to other people as well as your contacts

Steal all of your sensitive data such as passwords and credit card numbers

Corrupt your important files

Considerably degrade your computer performance

Not to mention that it might prevent you to download and install a real security application and thus render you helpless.

Removing rogueware is equally important as removing any other malicious threats from your computer. If you are not on a budget, even a free spyware remover can greatly help. Get yourself one immediately and scan your system.

Please see the Backup Utilities guide for more information on how to make sure your files are 100% safe regardless of any possible failures.