A report released on Wednesday from PandaLabs suggested that malware posing as antivirus software are spreading fast infecting millions of computers each month.
PandaLabs found 1,000 samples of fake antivirus software in the first quarter of 2008. In a year, that number had grown to 111,000. And in the second quarter of 2009, it reached 374,000, Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs said in a recent interview.
PandaLabs found that 3 percent to 5 percent of all the people who scanned their PCs with Panda antivirus software were infected. Using that and worldwide computer stats from Forrester, PandaLabs estimates there could be as many as 35 million computers infected per month with rogue antivirus programs.
About 3 percent of the people who see the fake warnings fall for it, forking over $50 for an annual license or $80 for a lifetime license, according to Corrons.
Last September, a hacker was able to infiltrate rogue antivirus maker Baka Software and discovered that in one period an affiliate made more than $80,000 in about a week, said Sean-Paul Correll, a PandaLabs threat researcher.
The malware generally reports fake infections and gets people to pay for software they do not need. Or worse, it may download viruses, Trojans and worms which may cause further damage.
Reports also state that such malware-creators can get as many as $10, 0000 a day from these fake softwares.
The most important thing for the consumer to understand is that no legitimate antivirus vendor will start a scan automatically on their computer without their consent.
After all the hoopla about the Conficker threat, researchers seemed almost relieved that it turned out to distribute fake antivirus software instead of something much worse.
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