14 DAY TRIAL // Rogue AVG offering sites are designed to look serious and genuine but in fact, they're only after your credit card information and as a bonus you might even receive a malicious virus.
Instead of installing pieces of scareware on the computers of unsuspecting victims, cybercriminals decided to deploy genuine looking sites that seem to sell already popular security products.
Zscaler came across a large number of websites that appear to be commercializing the well-known AVG Antivirus. While some of them ask for as much as $70 (50 EUR) for a complete package, others give it away for free, but ask for a maintenance fee.
Either way, all you end up with is an emptied bank account and a compromised credit card.
In the first part of the scheme, once the download button is hit, you are taken to a page that asks for your name and email address. This is probably a method to make sure the masterminds at least get a hold of your email address for their future plots.
Next, you are faced with a page where you're required to choose the plan you desire for the product and finally, the infamous payment page appears where you not only pay the hackers the money they want, you also give them sensitive data such as card number, CVV and expiration date.
To make the whole thing even more realistic, the bottom of the payment page reads “Your IP Address: <XX.XX.XX.XX> is logged for fraud prevention. FRAUD WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.”
Of course, after you make the payment and hand over your billing information, they can serve you with anything they want, malware or even a version of the genuine Free AVG, but without the much-promised support.
Users who prefer AVG AntiVirus should make sure they download the software only from free.avg.com or other trusted locations. Avoid any other variations such as free-avg-download.com or avg-free.us.
The genuine AVG Free Edition 2012 is available for download here.