They hope to convince victims to pay for an app called "Advanced Windows Care 2"

Nov 21, 2012 13:55 GMT  ·  By

Kaspersky Lab Expert David Jacoby warns that tech support scammers are continuing to trick unsuspecting users to pay for so-called security solutions by scaring them into thinking that all sorts of malicious elements are present on their devices.

In a recent scheme, the fraudsters call their potential victims and inform them that a “Frozen Trojan” is infecting their computers.

Then, they utilize Windows services to convince internauts that certain components are not running properly.

All of this is topped off with a shady application called “Advanced Windows Care 2 Personal.”

The application performs a scan of the computer and prompts the user to address several problems related to spyware, registry entries, privacy and system optimization.

The app itself is free, but in order for it to resolve the problems, the victims is requested to pay a subscription fee that costs as much as $500 (600 EUR) for 10 years.

Users are advised to be cautious when so-call tech support companies call them out of the blue and tell them that viruses plague their computers. The scam is old, but it appears that many people still fall for it, otherwise the crooks wouldn’t bother running such operations.