Webroot Warns About Three Computer Scams

Webroot, a computer security company, sees lots of virus-related scams. Some are just annoying. Others can pose serious security risks to consumers' bank accounts.

In a recent newsletter to customers, Webroot highlighted three of the most common computer scams and offered advice for avoiding them.

Your computer is infected!

The biggest criminal enterprise is the rogue antivirus product, the company says. A pop-up tries to convince you that your computer is infected so you hand over money for "antivirus protection" - which usually is not actually protection at all. The warning in the pop-up has nothing to do with the state of your computer - no analysis has been done. If you downloaded the offered "protection," you might be downloading malware.

"The minute you see a fake alert, stop everything you're doing, kill the browser, and perform a full scan with the legitimate antivirus product of your choice," Webroot says.

Check out this cool link!

If you often exchange links with friends, its easy to fall for this one. But it your friend's email or Facebook account is hijacked, that message with a short URL to watch a video or check out something equally "cool" might actually be from a scammer. The link leads to a malicious page with a malware download.

"Most shortlink services have a feature that lets you preview where the shortlink will go; use it," Webroot advises. "If you've never heard of the Web site, check the true destination domain against a reputation service, such as Webroot's Brightcloud. And don't be the first one among your friends to click a link."

John Doe wants to be your friend

In this one, the scammers usually duplicate the message format of popular social network sites. Instead of linking to "friend request," it takes you to a malicious page instead. 

To avoid this one, without clicking anything, move the mouse over the link in your email message, then look at the Status Bar to see exactly where the link leads. If the message claims to come from one company, but the URL points to a domain you've never heard of, don't click the link.