Faking it

Many of you will be aware of the numerous fake Anti Virus programmes that pop up a warning on your screen. They tell you that your system is infected and if you pay for their amazing programme it will clean your system. Of course your system was not infected and installing their programme will do nothing to help – except turn your PC into part of a botnet. I hope that readers are aware that anything like this that appears on their screen is a scam.How Can I Recover Deleted Files

Related to this is the Fake Drive Rescue scam. This is a trojan that disrupts the system so that users think their hard drive is about to give up. It will even clear your desktop and disable Task Manager. Naturally a pop up then appears advertising ‘Windows Recovery’ software – which will cost you around £50 ($80). If you do not buy then the trojan causes even more disruption until the system becomes almost unusable.

The pop ups from these programmes look very realistic but they are fake. Do not buy anything – the baddies will not only have your money but alsoHow To Recover Hard Disk Data your card details – and that could lead to identity theft.

Unfortunately, you do not need to visit any dodgy sites to pick this up – a visit to a known, reputable site that has been compromised will be sufficient.

What can you do to prevent this? Several things – keep Windows updated, keep all other software updated – things like Java, Flash and Adobe Reader, keep your Anti Virus updated and run regular scans.

If you do get caught out, then we have plenty of experts to help you remove this parasite – simply visit our Malware Removal Forum here at TSF.