Fake Antiviruses: What are They?

Fake Antiviruses, also called as roguewares or rogue security softwares, are a type of malicious software (e.g malware) that deceives computer users into paying for a supposed removal of viruses, trojans, worms and other security problems in a computer. While “real” antiviruses such as Norton, Bitdefender and AVG can detect and remove security threats in computers, fake antiviruses merely mimics the characteristics of these legitimate softwares. Fake antiviruses, for example, also appear to scan and detect malwares and related computer issues. The major difference between the two is that legitimate antiviruses detect, fix and remove real computer threats. Fake antiviruses do not remove malicious files. What they actually do is “detect” bogus or nonexistent malwares or show security threats that do not actually exist.

Image: Popular brands in computer security: Fake Antiviruses often mimic the characteristics and even names of legitimate antivirus protection softwares

A fake antivirus can make it appear that it has detected security threats and problems in the computer and then solicits payment to computer users in a pretense to remove malwares or fix issues in the computer. More often than not, these detected computer problems are non-existent.

The fake antivirus problem has become a security concern among computer users following the rapid spread of this type of computer infection. There has been a massive growth in the illegal fake antivirus business since 2008.