What Is Scareware

Scareware is a form of malware that is meant to scare the user to think that their machine is infected with malware. This is a large distributor of malware because so many fall for its trick. So below I will cover all you need to know about this form of malware and what to do if you come in contact with scareware. As always you should never download anything that it tells you to or your computer will be infected. Scareware was very popular a couple years back but it has slowed in recent times.

What Does It Do

Scareware is generally seen in the browser or it will pop up on the screen. It will say something like windows is running a virus scan and it spits out a menu telling you to download some software. This software comes with a trojan and some sort of ransomware. This why it got the name of scareware while they themselves don't contain malware they do encourage the download of it. Generally it is in the form of trojans and ransomware.

How Do I Detect It

You will be able to detect them fairly quickly but the trick is to not fall for what it says. For instance you might get a pop up saying windows is scanning for viruses  The first issue is nothing in windows will tell you that it is scanning for viruses. Many programs do however windows its self cant. Another thing is after the scan it prompts you to download a program. Now the real issue if windows could scan for viruses then why cant it remove them without this other software. That is because this is a malicious download. You will not be able to tell before hand unless you have a tool that tells you whether a site is safe or not before you go to it.

Protection?

There are not a lot of ways to protect yourself other than to not download the software that it tells you. You should also avoid popups and ads that tell you that there is something wrong with your machine. These are generally a bad sign unless you are using something such as the bit defender quick scan.

Summary

While these are generally harmless the best thing for you to do when online is never to download the program that they tell you to. You should also try making your browser more secure by adding extensions such as WOT or read my article about Securing Google Chrome.