Fake security software in millions of computers

***** As I'm sure Lippsman would tell you, if you ever get a pop up of this type, do not click on ANYTHING - not 'OK', not 'Cancel', not even the 'X' in the top right hand corner. Just go into Explorer and kill your browser from there. *****

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The "alert" warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee.

"Lots of times, in fact they're a conduit for attackers to take over your machine," said Vincent Weafer, Symantec's vice president for security response.

"They'll take your credit card information, any personal information you've entered there and they've got your machine," he said, referring to some rogue software's ability to rope a users' machine into a botnet, a network of machines taken over to send spam or worse.

Symantec found 250 varieties of scam security software with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008, and about 43 million attempted downloads in one year but did not know how many of the attempted downloads succeeded, said Weafer.

"In terms of the number of people who potentially have this in their machines, it's tens of millions," Weafer said.

It was also impossible to tell how much cyberthieves made off with but "affiliates" acting as middlemen to convince people to download the software were believed to earn between 1 cent per download and 55 cents.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

"What surprised us was how much these guys had tied into the whole affiliated model," Weafer said. "It was more refined than we anticipated."

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Very, very true.  There are some that will make you think you have a virus and malware.  They have little shields that look like Microsofts and even a security center that looks like Microsofts.  But it's different.

No legit virus software will just install itself and ask you to buy it.  Microsoft will never link you to a virus/malware program to download.

Yeah these are so common.  Sometimes you can just do a google search and some of the results which appear legit when you click on the link it open these spyware scans.  Can't even close the browser.  I think pretty much just have to shut down your comp and then run scans.  Extremely annoying.

Since I speak from experience *sigh*, the only thing to do is open Windows Explorer and kill Firefox or IE from there. These popups are rigged so that no matter what you click on ("OK", "CANCEL", or even the 'X') it automatically triggers the download. Next thing you know, my wallpaper had changed to some ad for anti-virus software and I couldn't get rid of it (did scans, went into the registry, started in safe mode, did system restore - nothing worked) - I had to do a fresh install.

Bottom line: use something like those Norton or McAfee advisors that will (hopefully) prevent you from landing on one of these malware sites.

What about those sites that do a free scan for errors that slow down your computer, then tell you they found x amount of errors and require you to buy their software to fix the errors.

Regcure is one that i have seen, it seems like a scam.

The only ones I would trust is from the major anti-virus companies.

I have RegCure, it's legit.  Lippsman, can prove this.

buy a mac and then anti-virus will no longer be in your vocabulary

Macs don't get virus' and iPhones don't get virus'?

Oh my........For those that just don't know.

Well there is spyware/malware out there for Macs and the iPhones.  And the more popular they get the more shit will be written for them.  It's just that where Macs only account for about 6% of the sales the malware writers just don't care.  But that is changing for sure.

But of course if you surf instead of going to sites you really shouldn't be going to most PC's will be fine also.  But that lure of free software, music and porn takes down so many computers.

It's fun to tell the customers that get thier computers de-cruded that the sites like the porn ones will infect your computer pretty much all the time.  As soon as they say of course they never go there we will say we can print up a list of the websites where someone must be using thier computer.

The looks are priceless.