Sunday, May 07, 2006

Fake Warnings From Spyware

I thought I'd post some screenshots of the fake Windows error and warning messages from SpyFalcon. All of them attempt to look like they are legitimate messages from Windows in some way. About the only good thing about them is you can close them by clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the window without being taken to some unwanted site. You can click the pictures to see them better since I made them smaller to fit this post.

The first one is the one everyone who has SpyFalcon sees when they first get infected. This one looks just like the same balloon you get when you have new updates from Microsoft. Of course, this is not real.

The next one doesn't look like a pop up window, but a real error warning from Windows. Critical system error is sure to make many people wonder. They did mess up because the last word isn't a real English word.

Next, we have another one using a critical error as a way to get your attention. It suggests to download patches from official partners trying to sound like the programs are sponsored by Microsoft.



One thing you will notice is many of the rogue antispyware programs have poor English in the text. Clicking the OK button will send you to a page that offers several different rogue programs that you can buy.


The next one isn't as in your face about critical errors, but it still has the Internet Explorer "e" symbol in it. Looks like they misspelled "choose" as "chose". One way you can tell that the warning is not real is by some error in the warning. Misspelled English words that are not the ones that are usually spelled wrong is one of the easier ways to tell. Another one is the way the sentences are written. It just doesn't sound right. It is written in a way that no one who is a native English speaker would write it.


Finally, we have one that takes up just about your entire screen trying to peddle several fake programs to you. I had to shrink this one some so it wouldn't be too big for the post here. Here's what it says:

Attention! Security Center has detected active threats on your PC. Your current security software is unable to delete or quarrantine these threats. To clean up your system and block all adware/spyware you need to download and install one of the certified intrusion detection systems.Remember

Remember that you never get updates or official software from Microsoft by downloading and paying for it.



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