Comments on: The sneaky trick to sell me anti-virus software

By: Marie Bohusch

Marie Bohusch — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

This one seems to be getting more and more common. I've hit this sort of thing a few times – check the source, and tick that off as one web site to never visit again. My parents run external drives — which is precisely how I cleared up the confusion when my mom hit similar a few weeks ago.I've had to cajole certain family members to ALWAYS keep their status bar turned on so that they can mouse over links when they aren't sure whether a site or email is legit … instead of clicking on them. It's always the little things that can screw pcs up the worst…

By: Eric Wroolie

Eric Wroolie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:48:00 +0000

Strangely, just after I had this problem and posted it, there was a news story on BBC saying that 40 million people had fallen for virus software scams.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8313678.stmI see scams all the time, but this one looked so convincing.

By: Angela Paige

Angela Paige — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:35:00 +0000

I had it a few months ago, it was a real wake up call. I had been procrastinating and was running without an antivirus after switching to a new ISP. I Panicked and wiped everything out.

By: Seshadri Dhanakoti

Seshadri Dhanakoti — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:50:00 +0000

That is no new anti-virus. It is more like a key logger or some kind of back door program. No anti-virus company worth its money will play such a trick and then think about it, they have to maintain it too as in honey pots, updated virus definitions and etc…and why would a company who can employ such resources to successfully manage an anti-virus company play such cheap tricks..obvious isn't it? That downloaded executable is not an anti-virus. So what else can it be? Obviously!

By: James MacKenna

James MacKenna — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Actually, I've seen those windows before- they don't usually code for Mac, so I get a windows screen- I've never had it happen with a Mac screen popping up.

By: Eric Wroolie

Eric Wroolie — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Since is it basically delivered via javascript, it probably uses a browser sniffer to send the right image to the browser. I figure that's why I got an xp explorer image instead of a vista image.

By: Rob Knox

Rob Knox — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

It would be funny to see that screen looking like Windows Explorer showing the viruses pop up on my Mac.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000