Eco-friendly Scareware?

About six weeks ago I posted about scareware, pop-ups that entice you to click on a button to “fix” your computer.

You’ve probably seen it… you’re surfing along and up pops a window saying something like “Your computer is infected with 182 viruses – click here to fix”.

It’s extortion. They infect your computer and then want money to fix it. It’s another form of phishing, luring you in under false pretenses. The term for it is “scareware”.

community.ca.com  just posted about a new version of scareware, Green Scareware. This variation, called GreenAV,  promises to donate $2 to Amazon rain forests or some such nonsense.

A word to the wise – don’t let your better nature get you into a jam. If you come across this, just close your browser. Hackers often change the X to close the popup to mean it will download the malware.

When you open your browser again, don’t opt for “restore session”, choose new session. You can use your History to go back to any tabs you had open..
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