warning to all about fake adware scan popup's

[Hellfighter]

[b]
Q. I am a computer services provider. I am getting a tremendous number of calls for a malicious spyware program called SpyFalcon. I have found no anti-spyware tools to remove this program. I feel bad that many home users are calling professionals to clean this out of their system. There is a manual procedure to do this on Google. Perhaps you can share this with your listeners or ask someone of a higher power to come up with a cleaning utility.


A. SpyFalcon was a new one on me. But the sales process it uses is not. According to the Web site SpywareWarrior.com, it uses false positives to encourage people to purchase it.

You're correct that there is removal information on the Internet. However, at least two security companies scan for and remove SpyFalcon. They are Webroot, which makes Spy Sweeper, and Panda Software. Other anti-spyware programs probably attack this thing, too.

I would use the anti-spyware programs to remove SpyFalcon. That's a lot simpler than the instructions on the Internet.

I am not sure how SpyFalcon approaches customers. But, these programs typically use a pop-up to tell you that you have spyware on your computer. They offer a free scan, which confirms the presence of spyware. The only way to clean it, they say, is by buying their product.

Many listeners complain to me that even when they buy and run the product, it continues to find the original spyware. There's a simple reason for that—the program is finding a threat that is not present. That is the false positive.

In my opinion, this sort of thing is criminal. Unfortunately, many of the companies behind these schemes are Asian or Eastern European. Bringing them to justice is very difficult.

There are many products on the Web that give false positives. So follow Kim's Rule 169Bg: Never accept a free offer from a pop-up to scan your computer. There is a 99.9 percent chance that the offer is fraudulent. That is certainly true if the pop-up says your computer is infected. An online program could not know that unless it scanned your computer.

try not to use any free scan popups 99% of the time they will say you have something in reality your clean, its a sell gimmic to get you to use their software. in other words its a con-job.

as for SpyFalcon stay away from it totally. you see it don't have a thing to do with it!!!

if you looking for some item or need something for your system go here: http://www.komando.com/bestshareware.asp

Ms Kim Komando has a good list of thing you can get most are free, i get her news letters e-mails all the time with some good new's and alart on some things happen in the world.

[Mstenger404]

I never trusted pop-ups.
there was this one guy i know who's sister saw a pop-up that actually said "this is a virus, click here to recieve it" and she clicked on it and i like lol'd , then they were bombarded!

[Hellfighter]

will some kid brother or sister may think, i got a virus or some type of bug in the system, this things is free i use it mom and dad will never know it. trouble taken care of......

only thing is some of these items are totally crap and they will instill adware/spyware/virus from hell.

never click-on a pop-up ads or any type of pop-up's at all. other then X-outa it totally.

i seen some flash ads too skipping across the screen don't do anything with them at all ether close the page out and go some other place....it means you have a adware item in your system........adware cookies or dll's can make pop-ups happen, trojan horse use dll's to get around anti-pop blockers too.

[Lucky]

i acidently clicked on one once, i got a bad virus and had to do some good cleaning of my system