Virus scans your system for virus

Be careful when you get pop-ups regarding virus alerts in your system

The next time you get a pop-up message saying that your computer is infected with virus, just be careful. Careful not because that your computer is infected with virus, but careful because you may be just at the doorstep of a tricky virus waiting for your mouse click to further its malicious activities. Many times, pop-ups that you get are not genuine though they look very much legitimate. These pop-ups are actually flashed by a virus already sitting in your system.

The motive of the virus is quite simple. It tries to scare the user by pop-ups alerting him about virus present in his system and scaring him out of his wits. The pop-up prompts the user to buy a full version of its antivirus solution. Unaware of the problem he may land in, the user pays online to buy its full version. However, to his dismay he receives no antivirus solution against the payment he has made and is robbed of his money.

The virus also scans the system to make everything look legitimate, so that one can easily fall into its trap. It is needless to say that the scan results are also fake.

These kinds of ‘Scareware’ are very common nowadays. According to online security company McAfee, these types of ‘Scareware’ caused heavy financial losses to the users in the year 2010. It has been estimated by McAfee that this kind of fake antivirus cost users millions of dollars every year.

Users can, however, keep away from these kinds of online traps by being a little more careful. They should never open websites which they are not sure about. Opening these sites may infect the system which then flashes pop-up messages. Always remember that most of the doubtful sites are malicious.