Scareware Seller Gets 4 Years

[Rydian]

A Swedish man was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to selling rogue antivirus software in an international cybercrime ring. [...] and was ordered to pay $650,000 in forfeiture.

[...]

About 960,000 people were affected, and the cybercrime ring netted about $71 million from the scheme.

[...]

Sallnert was arrested in Denmark in January 2012 and extradited to the United States in March.

Source

Glad to see another scareware backer downed, but for each one that's taken out there's still 9 more...

 

[Costello]

I hope the benefits of his little scam were also confiscated. Because if he made $71 million and gets fined for $0.6 million, thats downright unfair.
I hate those scarewares, so many ignorant people fall for it... not everyone is a computer expert capable of discerning a true virus from another.

 

[RupeeClock]

I hope the benefits of his little scam were also confiscated. Because if he made $71 million and gets fined for $0.6 million, thats downright unfair.
I hate those scarewares, so many ignorant people fall for it... not everyone is a computer expert capable of discerning a true virus from another.

The funny part is that some legitimate anti-virus software also use scare tactics.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/syman...e-tactics-to-sell-full-version-products/66812

So who can you really trust to protect your computer?
Well not Norton at least, they really pressure you into keeping up subscriptions when that free trial that came with your store-bought PC runs out, and guilt-trip you during the uninstallation process.

 

[Rydian]

Yeah... years back I'd suggest Avira as a free AV, but it resorted to scare tactics so I stopped.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

Yeah... years back I'd suggest Avira as a free AV, but it resorted to scare tactics so I stopped.

I'd say AVG's also a good free one, but Kaspersky is the best paid one, hands down.
EDIT: AVG does something similar, it exaggerates how fast your computer boots.
i.e. I upgraded to Win 8 Pro and it said my computer turned on 259% faster, probably because of the OS upgrade.

 

[shakirmoledina]

there are so many who fall prey to such software. I think also a review should be done on all 'free' antivirus and see whether they are doing what they were saying they would or not. People use them and all they do is add conduit and waste precious resources.

PS - Costello looks even more like a lion with administrators written in red

 

[Rydian]

There's already sites out there that review AV programs. I just don't link to them because they also do tests on which threats are caught and which ones aren't, and those are pretty misleading for various reasons.

 

[Sterling]

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials for a long time now and I'm really happy with it. Zero ads, lightweight and it doesn't guilt trip you for uninstalling it. I'd recommend it to everyone. I'm also glad these scareware bastards are getting caught. I mean they unintentionally bring me business, but damn them any way.

 

[raulpica]

Yeah... years back I'd suggest Avira as a free AV, but it resorted to scare tactics so I stopped.

Wait, when? I use it daily and I've never seen anything like that.

I'd say AVG's also a good free one, but Kaspersky is the best paid one, hands down.
EDIT: AVG does something similar, it exaggerates how fast your computer boots.
i.e. I upgraded to Win 8 Pro and it said my computer turned on 259% faster, probably because of the OS upgrade.

AVG does something sucky too, it asks you for an update (which looks like a normal one) then you click the button and it switches you over to the 30day Trial for the INTERNET SECURITY package without you even noticing. Lots of computer n00bs fall for that, and I know that, since I had to stop using AVG as all my customers would call me angrily saying that the "free" antivirus I installed did expire.

Damn scammers.

 

[InuYasha]

While I do hate shit like this people need to open their eyes when it comes to the obvious things...

 

[Veho]

AVG does something sucky too, it asks you for an update (which looks like a normal one) then you click the button and it switches you over to the 30day Trial for the INTERNET SECURITY package without you even noticing. Lots of computer n00bs fall for that, and I know that, since I had to stop using AVG as all my customers would call me angrily saying that the "free" antivirus I installed did expire.

Damn scammers.

It also can't be uninstalled, and the security features can't be overriden for love or money. You need special AVG-removal software to get rid of it D:

 

[FAST6191]

It also can't be uninstalled, and the security features can't be overriden for love or money. You need special AVG-removal software to get rid of it D:

At this point time I almost always use the standalone uninstaller methods for any AV program and my USB drive of wonder has seen their ranks swell where before it was just the norton and mcafee ones I kept up to date.

 

[linkofhyrule1]

Hm, perhaps the only reason avast! hasn't been mentioned yet is the lack of scheduled virus scans?
That being said, scareware did a lot for me: breaking a second computer as a child was an excellent learning experience!

 

[Coconuts 500]

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials for a long time now and I'm really happy with it. Zero ads, lightweight and it doesn't guilt trip you for uninstalling it. I'd recommend it to everyone. I'm also glad these scareware bastards are getting caught. I mean they unintentionally bring me business, but damn them any way.

Microsoft Security Essentials is literally the worst mainstream anti-virus software there is out there. It's the only one that's failed AV-TEST, and consistently, too. It's placebo-ware. Do not use it if you want to actually be safe.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...ails-AV-Test-Loses-Certification-310715.shtml

 

[Gahars]

4 years? For scareware? Really?

Is it too late to give the death penalty a go?

 

[Veho]

4 years? For scareware? Really?
Is it too late to give the death penalty a go?

Yup. Double jeopardy.

 

[dragonmaster]

well my favorite is eset antivirus, but I gave microsoft essentials a good run too.
The scareware apps are really annoying and based on fear to earn money, many have basic computer knowledge and therefore are easy victims

 

[Deleted member 318366]

I use avast on one computer and then malwarebytes and mse on the other.

 

[FAST6191]

well my favorite is eset antivirus, but I gave microsoft essentials a good run too.
The scareware apps are really annoying and based on fear to earn money, many have basic computer knowledge and therefore are easy victims

You are not confusing those people that call you up and say "we are from Microsoft security technical ninja department" and those fake antivirus programs are you? The former are equally despised but it is a different thing.

As for MSE looking more closely at the numbers involved (and ignoring their slightly suspect nature and leaving aside that there are no real standards for security and certainly not proper metrics for these sorts of programs) I fail to see a real problem if you have a proper security setup- whether I can quite get behind "if you have got a virus you have failed" remains to be seen but there is no issue with flanking such a program with proper access control/HIPS. For a crude and possibly broken analogy it seems like blasting such a program for failing to include a firewall.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

Wait, when? I use it daily and I've never seen anything like that.


AVG does something sucky too, it asks you for an update (which looks like a normal one) then you click the button and it switches you over to the 30day Trial for the INTERNET SECURITY package without you even noticing. Lots of computer n00bs fall for that, and I know that, since I had to stop using AVG as all my customers would call me angrily saying that the "free" antivirus I installed did expire.

Damn scammers.

To add on Norton does something weird too. I have a Mac that I use as an HTPC, I installed Norton. A few months later, I was cleaning up my hard drive and noticed something: Norton was taking up 200GB! (Not a typo!) I've never uninstalled anything with so little remorse.