Comments on: Detect Fake Antivirus software & Spyware Removal programs

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: Remove A Plethora Of FAKE Antivirus Software With This Free App | Programming Blog

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:47:06 +0000

[...] more information about fake antivirus software, read Ryan’s post “Detect Fake Antivirus software & Spyware Removal programs“. How do you deal with rouge or fake antivirus or spyware applications? Do you have policies [...]

By: Remove A Plethora Of FAKE Antivirus Software With This Free App | jacobW.com

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:46:50 +0000

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

By: School Computer

School Computer — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:01:59 +0000

Out of interest, how did you remove it? I work in a school and one of the computers has been infected and every time I try to change website onto something else(for example this website) from that computer, it reverts to a website called ’spywareremoval.com’ or something similar. Also, being a school computer, it isnt possible to access task manager or add/remove programs on XP. Is it possible to download a removal program and install it through a usb stick? Any info would be very useful, thank you

By: Gerry - Small Laptop Computers

Gerry - Small Laptop Computers — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:00:10 +0000

Thanks for the very useful information. It is tempting to try some of the so called “free offers” that are out here that sound too good to be true. One tip that I use is to always do a Google search on the name of the product in question using a search ” product name + trojan” which will usually bring up information on the viability of the product.

By: ItsFakeDude

ItsFakeDude — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:06:19 +0000

Today I just removed some fake antivirus for a client called “Personal Antivirus”. The interface for it looked exactly like the popular free program AVG.

By: Cheezwhiz

Cheezwhiz — Sat, 16 May 2009 23:38:19 +0000

I remember Antivirus 2008! I was cleaning out my older sister’s computer because she bought a new laptop and I was going to inherit her desktop. Antivirus 2008 told me I had 49 infections, and I got so mad when it kept reappearing after I supposedly uninstalled it. And I was even madder when it told me I had to register, because I can’t stand using paid software. It didn’t go away until I ran a bunch of scans with my trusted AVG. After that, I settled down to get rid of Purityscan. Now that I think about it, I should probably give my sister a lesson about computer care — she’s on her third laptop since the first had a defective part and the second just broke down.