Comments on: Detect Fake Antivirus software & Spyware Removal programs

By: RobTodd

RobTodd — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:42:44 +0000

I’ve found that combofix will remove these and other nasty infections 99% of the time. Just be carefull where you get combofix from, as there are fakes for it. most reliable is bleepingcomputer.com

By: Denis

Denis — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:31:39 +0000

Trying any of your defences like your legit AV, Malwarebytes and hijackthis will result in the trojan telling you that these programs are infected too. If so, disconnect your internet connection and then ctrl/alt/delete to stop the process in your task manager. you can then run malwarebytes to remove the nasty ‘orrid. clean up with your own AV, run hijackthis and restart your computer. reconnect the internet. I used this method to remove Antivirus 2009 from my PC tonight.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:34:29 +0000

I’ve worked on several computers for friends recently that have been infected; they appear to have been triggered by a program that looks like Windows Defender, but they didn’t have any toolbar that could minimize or close the window, so they only had the option to click download or install. I’ve seen something like this on my computer, and the only way to get past it is the 3 finger salute (Ctrl, Alt, Del) and close the application.

They seem to have a commonality of turning off updates to your OS, Windows firewall, and antivirus or spam software. Some programs (Avast, AVG, and Spybot) couldn’t even be opened to run.

Like other posters, the only way that I could get rid of it was with Malwarebytes, but it would only do this in Safe Mode.

Nasty people who propagate this stuff.

Thanks to the above posters and the author for helping us stay as clean as possible.

By: Iman Diaz

Iman Diaz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:14:47 +0000

What I have found EXTREMELY effective against fake security software is MalwareBytes Anti-Malware… So far to date it does the trick every time. What I love about it is that it has real time protection which many apps do but not very well…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:22:39 +0000

Just wanted to say Thanks for the Info. I’ll be teaching a class next week on Internet Threats and wanted to have examples of Fake Antivirus / Anti Spyware problems as a potential threat as well. This is perfect for what I needed. Appreciate you taking the time to help people be informed.

Thx!

By: hemsteinmay81

hemsteinmay81 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:07:17 +0000

I got Cyberdefender antivirus software and liked the free scanner and spyware remover. I bought the upgrade and it really has saved my computer because it has blocked a bunch of virus attacks I got from various websites.

I found out that they are a NASDAQ company, which means there is some accountability and that they sell a valid product. I will try the registry cleaner, since I had such a positive experience from Cyberdefender anti-virus.

By: clinton oreb

clinton oreb — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:01:19 +0000

i got the pav virus from facebook

By: Ryan Dube

Ryan Dube — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:06:08 +0000

Yeah, Malwarebytes does a great job removing a lot of these fake antivirus programs.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:49:20 +0000

I removed PAV using ” Malwarebytes anti-malware ” free edition. It did a great job of removing all traces of this nasty rogue antivirus.

By: ItsFakeDude

ItsFakeDude — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:57:31 +0000

I went into program files and found the folder PAV and deleted the PAV.exe file. I also had to remove some registry entries, which you can google. That all seemed to work well and it hasn’t recreated itself. I did see this removal program, but I didn’t try it. So, I’m not sure how well it works.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Antivirus—Antispyware/Remove-Personal-Antivirus.shtml

Goodluck