Guide | How To Beginner’s Guide: Is that a real anti-malware product?

[Jack]

In all our discussion of Trojans, downloaders, malicious spam and more than 700 rogues, it’s easy to forget that a lot of folks out there using the Internet simply can’t tell the difference between a rogue and a legitimate anti-malware application. They become the victims of scareware. They pay $49.98 for software that doesn’t do anything but pop up frightening warnings. To boot, they may have their credit card information stolen.

To light a small candle in this vast darkness, Sunbelt Software has produced a guide to help non-technical Internet users recognize rogue anti-malware products.

“How to Tell If That Pop-Up Window Is Offering You a Rogue Anti-Malware Product” is available here.

 

[LoftedAphid86]

To be honest I can tell that a product is rogue because it is offering it to me in the form of a popup.

 

[Brian]

From TrendLabs: FAKEAV 101: How to Tell If Your Antivirus Is Fake

Fake antivirus or FAKEAV has become a significant threat and more and more users have become victims of this profitable scam. In this blog entry, you will find some tips that will allow you to identify fake antivirus programs and other similar Internet scams.

 

[Chiron]

To be honest I can tell that a product is rogue because it is offering it to me in the form of a popup.

Oh yeah, well what about ZoneAlarm.
(Pic attached)

 

[LoftedAphid86]

To be honest I can tell that a product is rogue because it is offering it to me in the form of a popup.

Oh yeah, well what about ZoneAlarm.
(Pic attached)

A product that just appears on the internet.
ZoneAlarm free is nagware due to the popup.

 

[LaserWraith]

To be honest I can tell that a product is rogue because it is offering it to me in the form of a popup.

And Norton :-/

Symantec Scareware Tells Customers To Renew Or ‘Beg For Mercy’

Symantec continues its scaremongering against Free Anti Virus Products

Scare Tactics: Norton's Cybercrime Index Tracks Internet Dangers in Real-time, Frightens Old Folks


Personally, I just know about AVs from articles and reviews (and plain references on forums/blogs). Most fakes have a certain "feel" to them.

 

[bogdan]

A bit off-topic but NIS is actually a good product. I like to keep products and companies separated.

 

[LaserWraith]

A bit off-topic but NIS is actually a good product. I like to keep products and companies separated.

I've heard that too, but Symantec uses shady marketing techniques.

 

[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

The popup in Avira Free is really annoying, but I have a method to stop it

 

[jamescv7]

At least the popup for legitimate isn't very aggressive while the rogue one popups were exaggerating especially its stated that the computer is infected when it isn't.

 

[Luke[Dumke480]]

This could be useful, thanks, at my work, i have customers coming in all the time saying that their "Anti-Virus" has ran out and then they paid for it and it didn't work and weren't sure why, some other don't pay but don't know what it is.

Rouge Software, IMO, is pretty easy to remove, if you know where it's targeted, the ones in Registry are a pain..

Well Thanks, I might pin this up at work.

 

[Payback]

To be honest I can tell that a product is rogue because it is offering it to me in the form of a popup.

But,I think inexperienced user don't know it,and happily will think they're protected by using scarewares like Net protector Anti-virus,XP anti-virus 2013 etc. You are experienced,so you'll notice the behavior easily,so does users at malwaretips.com. But what about people that are new. So

 

[Payback]

This could be useful, thanks, at my work, i have customers coming in all the time saying that their "Anti-Virus" has ran out and then they paid for it and it didn't work and weren't sure why, some other don't pay but don't know what it is.

Rouge Software, IMO, is pretty easy to remove, if you know where it's targeted, the ones in Registry are a pain..

Well Thanks, I might pin this up at work.

Nahhhhh,just download CCE or common on-demand scanners like Hitman pro and their PC is clean. Rather than deleting it manually,cause I think it is more convenient to do so

 

[Amiga500]

All security software has pop-ups etc.
It is called advertising and it is perfectly legitimate.
Many users of free products may not be aware that an advanced premium version is available.

Companies give some excellent software for free and we can be thankful for this so a little advertising is harmless in the long run.