Virus alerts

"Microsoft" Tells People to Install Viruses!

Outrageous hacker tactic!

By Alexandru Dumitru, Security News Editor

12th of October 2007, 07:49 GMT

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"Oh my God, Microsoft says I have virus issues and that I should download a program to get rid of them!" If you are just surfing the web and suddenly a Microsoft warning pops up from a site, saying that you have serious security issues on your machine, then don't believe it - it's all a hoax!

McAfee Avert Labs warns in a blog post that hackers will pretend to be Microsoft and tell users to download a program to stay safe. Of course, if you chose to download the program, you'll end up infected with a virus. These guys are not Microsoft, all they want to do is get a virus on your machine, not protect you!

As Rahul Mohanadas writes in the post, a fake Microsoft AntiSpyware website is promoting a rogue AntiSpyware application, AntiSpyStorm, that is similar to the Trojan FakeAlert-D.

When you first visit the site a fake scanner pops up and it "scans" your machine for threats and also takes a look at system performance. After it's done, it states that it detects several items and issues, and even provides a list of Trojans that (it says) had been found on your machine! They advise you to download something to help you out. Oh, no! What is to be done? Close the web page, of course, and not pay attention to it - it's all a hoax!

Should you go on and download the program they want you to, it starts "scanning" your PC again, provides exaggerated reports and offers to download another version. Furthermore, they will try to trick you into giving away credit card details, if you chose to download their software.

I know this sounds complicated, but that's just the way multi-stage attacks are. This is why it is recommended for you to ignore the whole thing the moment you smell something fishy is going on. Furthermore, Microsoft is a very well organized corporation - they don't just prompt you for security scans, out of the blue!

TAGS:

Microsoft | virus | hoax

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