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AVG Finds Scareware that Downloads Porn

Rogue software and Trojans have perfected the art of appearing like a legitimate antivirus applications and tricking users into paying for cleaning up there system. As computer users become more aware of this threat, the scareware purveyors are turning to a new trick: porn. Roger Thompson, the chief scientist at AVG, has found new scareware […]

Written By
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Lawrence Walsh
Lawrence Walsh
Nov 19, 2009
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Rogue software and Trojans have perfected the art of appearing like a legitimate antivirus applications and tricking users into paying for cleaning up there system. As computer users become more aware of this threat, the scareware purveyors are turning to a new trick: porn.

Roger Thompson, the chief scientist at AVG, has found new scareware that tricks users into thinking they have pornography on their machines. When the user clicks on the supposed solution, the scareware downloads porn onto the infected machine to prove the compromise.

Here’s a video of the AVG findings:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6s6mkvKi1mA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6s6mkvKi1mA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The scareware is distributed via compromised Web sites, so nearly anyone can inadvertently get infected by the drive-by download and leading popup messages. While more users are questioning the mysterious prompts for scareware masquerading as specialized antivirus, they are more likely to accept the anti-porn scareware since they don’t want lewd and lascivious images and videos on their machines – especially in work environments and PCs. 

 

 

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Lawrence Walsh

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