Yet another fake AV Scanner

It seems that fake AV scanners are becoming more popular these days. I know of at least 3 folks who have either accepted or been offered a supposed AV scan that says they have been infected and need to buy software. The newsgroups are filled with folks who installed “AntiVirus 2009” and end up spending a lot of time fixing it.

First rule: Never accept any popup message about scanning being done unless it is from the AV software you use.

Second rule: If you think it’s true (it seems to come from your AV), ignore any action the pop-up suggests and go to the AV software console and see what it says. To be sure, run a full system scan.

Bottom line: the changes that the pop-up is real and mot a scam is almost non-existent. Here’s a post from the Sophos blog about one case they ran into. Get's a bit complicated, but it gives you an idea of what is going on.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/sophoslabs/?p=6592

BTW, I really like Sophos for a corporate environment. It has its flaws, but works well. It is not, IMNSHO, appropriate for a home environment. Right now, I like Trend Micro, Kaspersky and I hear good things about Norton Internet Security 2009 (haven’t tried it yet…).