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  • FTC squashes fake virus scanning pop-ups; at least some of them

    Matt Burns

    Matt is a Senior Editor at TechCrunch. Matt Burns is a family man first and attempts to be a writer second. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, only cars eclipse his love of gadgets. He previously wrote for Engadget and EngadgetHD before moving into the party house that is TechCrunch. He learned the retail side of... → Learn More

    Saturday, December 13th, 2008

    ftc_hq5_400x350The all mighty FTC came down on five virus scanning programs that attempted to dupe computer novices into thinking their system was infected by a life-running, credit stealing virus. The ruse involved tricky web advertisements with hidden code linked to a user-installed ‘anti-virus program.’ (WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus) Over one million people were tricked by the somewhat legitimate-looking system message, but hopefully this judgement will help the cause against pop-ups. LOL, right. Props to the FTC, but we all know that other programs will take the place of these scareware schemes. Pop-ups aren’t going anywhere.

    FTC via Ars

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