Internet Antivirus scams are becoming a popular way to infect your computer with a virus and to trick you into giving your personal information.  This document will explain why it’s important to avoid these scams and the motives behind the creation of them.

Many of you may have heard of phishing.  Phishing is when someone on the Internet tries to trick you into giving them personal information about yourself. The most popular one for a long time was the “Nigerian Inheritance” scam.  You would get an email saying that a relative of yours has passed away and there is X amount of dollars in a bank account in Nigeria.  You can not get the money until you verify your identity.  Of course this entails giving them all of the personal information they need to steal your identity, empty your bank account, or sometimes have you wire them money with the promise of a return once they receive the inheritance money form the bank.

The idea is to trick you into thinking you have viruses on your computer so that you download their software.  What you download is not a legit Antivirus software but rouge Antivirus software.  Rouge Antivirus software is software that appears to be legit but it will tell you that you have viruses, malware, and spyware that you do not have.  It will also cripple your computer and it may download other viruses off of the internet.  The rouge Antivirus software will tell you that the only way to remove these viruses is to buy the software.  If you buy the software it will fix nothing, and someone far away now has all of your personal information as well as your credit information.  These programs can be removed but it takes time to do it because they hide on your computer.  Since there are so many variations of this particular scam, there is no one shot fix.  Please make sure to exercise caution when using the internet.  The most popular sites that will infect your computer with viruses are sites that offer free screen savers, games, or free merchandise.

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