oregonnerd: differing views

The Fake Anti-Virus Program

March 27, 2009 at 10:45 am Leave a comment

It’s evolved, at least in title (among the security vendors):  Anti-Virus 360.  That’s when you visit a page–often unexpectedly–and have a page-within-a-page pop up and tell you that you have terrible problems with your computer and it will scan them for you.  There’s something indicating progress, from a clock to a line.  And then…the golden moment:  for just $xxx, you can have protection.  And give ’em not only your current paying power (from debit to credit card and all between) but your computer.

To escape, ALT+F4.  If there’s a problem, go down to Start and do a Restart (reboot your computer) or even power it off.  Anything else is taking a measurable chance you’re clicking on an “enter character”.  Saying yes, that is:  these programs are even known to leave shortcuts and executables on the desktop–if just one “enter” character is clicked (the “Enter” key is a “click” for this purpose, because I don’t even want to attempt to define what an enter character is in clear English–particularly since it’s actually a legacy from the days of teletype and paper tape, of all things).

And use WOT or Haute Secure, at least.  They’ll help.

–Glenn

Please do read the referenced article.

Entry filed under: browsers, computers/tech, current news, how to, internet, internet security.