Three Indicted In Scareware Scam That Netted $100M 120
alphadogg writes "Three men are facing federal fraud charges for allegedly raking in more than $100 million while running an illegal 'scareware' business called Innovative Marketing that tricked victims into installing bogus software. The company's products generated so many consumer complaints that in 2008 the FTC brought a civil action against Innovative Marketing and call center partner Byte Hosting, effectively putting them out of business. On Wednesday, a grand jury in Chicago handed down criminal charges, meaning the three men now face jail time if convicted." One of the men indicted is in Ohio and the others are believed to be in Ukraine and Sweden. Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit helped out with the case.
This is why... (Score:4, Informative)
I tell everyone, both at work and the few who know I work in the IT field, that whenever you are asked if you to install something, the answer is always no. I don't care if it tells you your computer will explode and burn your house down, the answer is no. I don't care if it tells you that 1 million babies will be killed if you don't install the software. The answer is still no.
No, no, no, no, no!
Of course not making them admin helps in this regard, but malware can still find a way to install itself so the answer is always no when asked if you want to install "Ultimate Web Cleaner Deluxe Plus!".
Re:Fake AVs (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fake AVs (Score:1, Informative)
One word.... "Combofix"
Seems to remove it everytime I use it.
Re:Fake AVs (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)