Beware! There are bad guys who are trying to do bad things to your computer - and your wallet. Malicious online content known as “rogue anti-spyware” gives the appearance that your computer is infected with a virus, prompting you to buy a program to remove it.
A message appears on the screen with a prompt such as, “Attention: Your computer is infected with a virus! Download Internet Security 2010 to remove the virus”. The message is deceptive: In reality, the malware is a scare tactic to misled into purchasing the rogue anti spyware.
Not only is your computer infected with the rogue antispyware, now your credit card information and identity is also at risk.
Rogue anti spyware is extremely difficult to remove because it is a “polymorphic” malware, which means that a single program will constantly be changing its code in order to ensure it is always a step ahead of the latest signature updates for legitimate anti-virus programs. In addition, because the nature of rogue antispyware is to mislead people into thinking that it is legitimate antispyware, people often do not realize that they are infected in the first place until it is too late.
General advice about internet browsing applies here: be highly selective in what you click and where you go, and never open a file unless you are completely sure what it is. Specific to rogue antispyware, one should always have a legitimate anti-virus on their computer, so that you can avoid being tricked into downloading rogue antispyware.