Advice Request Is Avast becoming scareware?

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RaduGL

Level 2
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Verified
Aug 3, 2017
58
I was just notified by Avast that I have a "privacy issue", since my IP address is visible.
Guess I should buy their VPN or something...

Can such ads be considered borderline scareware? What are your thoughts on this matter?
 

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plat

Level 29
Top Poster
Sep 13, 2018
1,793
Interesting. I looked up "scareware" altho' the name should be self-explanatory. Definition.

Someone who isn't a fan of Avast might think it is pushy advertising and marketing gimmicks preying off the internet privacy thing trending everywhere nowadays. It's scareware if it's fake, according to the wiki. Otherwise, it's ignore-ware.

Edit: again? I'm proofing my post and people post the same things above me at the same time. Wow! So I post really quick or it looks funny. :)
 

Threadripper

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Feb 24, 2019
408
You can stop them by preventing an Avast process from connecting to the internet, but if you have to stop a process your antivirus uses to stop ads... it's time to stop using it. I myself used Avast for several years before they went downhill.
 

LDogg

Level 33
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May 4, 2018
2,261
You can stop them by preventing an Avast process from connecting to the internet, but if you have to stop a process your antivirus uses to stop ads... it's time to stop using it. I myself used Avast for several years before they went downhill.
Seems anything that Malwarebytes touches, unfortunately go downhill.

~LDogg
 

Atlas147

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Jul 28, 2014
1,990
I would argue that most free AVs that offer similar services like VPNs and such also employ similar tactics to make you buy them, but I would consider the way that avast has decided to phrase their ads to seem like an urgent alert highly unethical.

Most users would be able to see this as a scare tactic and know not to worry, however there are still people that would fall for this "scam" and they would be the ones that are most vulnerable to caving into their scareware.
 
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