Fake Antivirus Software Scam

I received a question from a customer. This post will show you the steps I revealed to him – so he can remove this fake software, pretending to be an anti virus or a security software.

“I’ve used your software before and it worked great. Now I’m attacked by a spyware program acting as a security suite called “security tool”.  Will your software remove it?  Thanks in advance“

Jim

Here was my reply:

Hi Jim,

Do the following to remove this fake software.

1) Uninstall it by going to Start >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs. Find the software from the list and click Remove button if you can see it in the list.

2) Scan with NoAdware™, I suggest before scanning click on Options >> Scan Settings then check Full System Scan. Check also the other two options:

Include Subfolders in Files/Folders scan

Include zip files in scan

3) Scan also with an antivirus after you finish scanning with NoAdware™. We recommend Avast antivirus, it’s free:
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Note: Before scanning with NoAdware™ or Avast always update the software, so you have the latest database of spyware and virus protection.

Two Optional steps after doing the above if they don’t fix the problem.

1) Download a registry cleaner software, we recommend CCleaner, it’s free. From: http://www.ccleaner.com

Open this software, and use all it’s options. Click on Windows Tab then click Analyze, then click Run Cleaner. Click on Applications Tab and do the same.

Click on Registry and then click on Scan for issues. Then click Fix Selected Issues. It will ask you do you want to backup your registry make sure you select yes.

Click on Tools, click on Uninstall. If you find this fake software name in the list click on it and click Run Uninstaller button. If it cannot be uninstalled click on Delete Entry.

Click on Startup and if you see this fake software name click on it, then click Disable – then click Delete.

2) If you know the name of this fake software try to find it on your computer. You can do this manually or by using the search command. Start > Search for files…

Usually installed software are located in C:/program files Click Start > Run and type C:/program files and see if you can find this fake software in there. If you do find it delete the folder. I don’t suggest you open folder and use their uninstall feature because it may be fake too and contain spyware.

Do the steps above. Should help a lot to find and remove this fake software

Thanks 

Fake Antivirus Software Scam

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 11:40 AM and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response and/or trackback from your own site.