Fake AV with online support service

In the latest Symantec report on rogue AV software, covering a period of one year (July 2008-June 2009), there have been some 43 million installation attempts from over 250 different rogue software!

Gaining from $30 to $100 dollars per victim, you can see why criminals engage in such an activity. If even a 0.01% of those installations succeed, that’s at least a clear $129,000.

One of the latest methods used to improve the chances of the victim buying the software was seen in the LIve PC Care campaign. Once the initial “scan” of the computer is “performed”, the victim is presented with a screen that shows a great number of threats found.

For those who are still suspicious of the software, there is a big yellow button on the upper right corner of the window that says “Online Support”. By clicking on it, the victim is brought to a live support chat session where they can talk to a “support person”:

Symantec‘s researchers tested it and came to the conclusion that there was a real person behind the answers. Their job is to make the victim believe in the legitimacy of the software and entice them into buying a full version.