Last spring, Microsoft issued a first warning about the spread of a new scam on the Internet selling fake antivirus. Today, the Redmond giant is joined by Symantec, makers of Norton Antivirus, which listed a year some 43 million attempts to install fake antivirus. These fake programs do nothing to protect the user's machine, but rather are there to steal private information including bank details.

On 19 October, during a rally around security, Symantec has backtracked on these results and said the scale of the phenomenon. One discovers a particularly lucrative market, this fake antivirus being marketed at prices ranging from 30 to $ 100. False software that is mostly only available in English. Of course, what are the surfers who, trusting to offer pay-install themselves on their computers these fakes antivirus. They often have read these solutions through advertising that is very real pay hackers on trusted sites or search engines.

False truths that seem...

The worst is that the virus is inefficient and according to Symantec, hackers use it to retrieve personal information including bank details of users they are abusing. Data subsequently resold and fueling networks fraud credit card.

Unlike many other common internet scams is that the activity of these hackers seem entirely legal. The ads seem real, the software interfaces echo those of most known anti-virus market, the fact that these solutions are paying adds to the confidence of the user and the pirate host their solutions on servers completely legal. It is therefore far from the usual techniques of phishing and zombie PCs. And one suspects that behind act of pirate networks extremely organized and protected so as not to be detected. Therefore caution and opt for known antivirus solutions on the market...