Winprotector Is No Protection
One of the most recent developments in malware technology is rogue antivirus software. The basic idea behind this is to fool people into thinking that they have infected files on their computer to con them into giving up their credit card information, and possibly steal their identity. Winprotector is one such a program.
These programs usually lie in wait at infected websites, or can be transmitted by infected downloads. The downloads are typically of the variety that one gets when doing Peer to Peer, or P2P file sharing, or when pirating media or software. One may say that it’s their just desserts, but stealing from a thief is stealing just the same.
The other method of transmission is, as said, is at infected websites. These websites usually have pornographic content or are bogus antispyware program home sites. Again, one may be unsympathetic to porn surfers, but is this really a reason to think they deserve a malware infection, or potential identity theft?
The bogus antispyware sites are truly the most devious. In some cases, an initial infection from one of the other methods of transmission will redirect the user to these sites. There usually isn’t any sure way of telling if they’re legitimate or not. They may seem to have credible references. They also will always have a free online scan or free trial version.
Although this is a universal feature of these fake antispyware sites, it by no means is a way of telling them apart from real antispyware sites, because many of them, including mine, have this same feature.
Unfortunately, apart from research, which may not always be accurate, there is no real way to know beforehand that these things are malware. Getting infected is the only sure way to know that you’ve been attacked.
So now the question is, what are the telling signs? First of all, unless you selected the free scan or free version on the fake website, the unsolicited scanning of your computer is a big clue.
The next big sign is that the scan shows an enormous infection, which is almost never the case in a somewhat normally working computer. It’s only showing you your temporary files, if you can’t tell by the display that sometimes will give it away.
After that, it will tell you that it can fix your supposed problem if you buy the registered software. It will show that you have the option to accept or not, but for some reason, will not take “No” for an answer.
Of course, if you say “Yes,” it will go to a sales page where you would enter your credit card information. If you’ve been duped far enough to get to this point, you should know that if you buy the software, and you’ll only get a substandard program that will actually give you more malware.
To take care of these problems is why I created SpyZooka. I wanted to provide the average user with the ability to never have to worry about spyware. Our 100% removal guarantee is solid and backed by the Better Business Bureau. Does it get any better?
