Virus Posing as Anti-Virus

Hackers have stolen graphics from VIRUSfighter's website and have made a malware that pretends to be the AV. When being infected with it, the user will receive a prompt claiming that an infection has been detected and that they have to pay to get it quarantined. This is not ransomware, as nothing actually happens to your files, and to be frank, it's not too dangerous since you can just ignore the pop-up. It's quite annoying though.

There is no actual virus, except for the one that prompts. It doesn't matter if your computer is clean or if you just formatted it, it will say you are infected, even if the prompting malware is the single infection on your PC. Also, I doubt that paying the money will get rid of this thing, so whatever you do, don't give the hackers any money!

The really nasty part about this virus is the fact that it's staining the image of the real AV. If you ever receive such a message, please do not act as it advises you to and inform the authorities so that they can put an end to the scam. No AV known to me will ever ask you for money to for a disinfection. Sure, not all anti-viruses are openware, but none is pay-per-use. You pay it once and you can use it whenever you need it. That's the way things work, so please be careful and don't fall for this.

"We are deeply saddened that this has happened. VIRUSfighter is a trustworthy program, and users should be confident using the real VIRUSfighter, which can be downloaded and purchased from our secure website, not from a pop-up," commented Martin Thorborg, co-owner and co-founder of SPAMfighter. So keep in mind that VIRUSfighter has not been hacked and it is still safe to use!