Scareware scares millions for identity thieves -
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
If we could have a favorite scam, for me, it would be "scareware". My reasoning for this is thats it is one of the few scams that really gets me through. My defenses are very good, but I still see scareware. They even took my blog and used my name to launch scareware in Google News Alerts. I am a criminal hacker attention and created in honor of scareware lil ole me!
Web pages can be infected or built to distribute scareware. The goal is to trick you into clicking on links. After landing on a page, pop-ups bombard you and warn that your PC is infected with a Ebola- 
Turn off the pop-up is often difficult and the buttons you press in this pop-up could mean downloading the exact virus they warn you. BRILLIANT!
The criminals even use Google Ads and have posted ads on well-known sites such as E-Harmony and Major League Baseball.
I'm online all day, every day and do a ton of research, which means I click on many links and scareware often see. If I am not aware of computer security and that this trick was, I would have been defrauded of $ 49.95 long ago. Many people take the bait, more than you can imagine.
Studies show that organized criminal earn $ 10,000.00 a day from scareware! It is about 200 people a day are caught. Some "distributors" have been estimated to be as much as $ 5 million a year. 
What makes the scam so believable is there is real follow-through buying software that is supposed to protect you. There is a cart, a purchase order, the processing of credit cards and a download, as any purchase of online software.
The software is sometimes known as "Antivirus2009" "WinFixer", "WinAntiVirus", "DriveCleaner," "WinAntiSpyware", "AntivirusXP" and "XP Antivirus 2008" are actually viruses or software spyware that infect your mere junk software that does nothing of value or PC.
A report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, released in March 2009, found 9,287 fake anti-malware programs in circulation in December 2008 - an increase of 225% since January 2008. This is simply because the scam works so well
criminal hackers teams each. their own duties and responsibilities. Team 1 creates pages loaded with scareware and works these pages in search engines, while others infect legitimate websites. Team 2 creates the junky software or spyware-ridden you are scared into buying. Team 3 creates the infrastructure 
Protect yourself. Invest in anti-virus software, such as McAfee. Make sure your browser has a pop-up blocker enabled, to avoid having to be "afraid". If you get a pop-up, you can close it by clicking the red X in the upper right corner, just do not click on anything in the body of the pop-up. I suggest shutting down your entire browser, though, to be sure.
Make sure your PC is updated with critical security patches and above all, be smart.
See Robert Siciliano, theft speaker identity, discuss ransomware, a form of scareware here.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an expert on identity theft, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 and start-up companies as a consultant on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. the thoughts and advice of Siciliano on all these issues often appear in both television and print media news, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of safety training as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on high alert; How to take control of your personal safety and to prevent fraud . He also established a partnership with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness of the growing threat of identity theft and provide tips on how you can protect yourself.
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