Beware of “free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0” offers

As soon as the release of a new version of Malwarebytes’ popular AV solution has been announced, cyber crooks and scammers began exploiting the news.

Hosted on random sites, the offered files purport to be a free version of the AV software, but are actually programs that can access private information that browsers store whenever users go online (cookies, browsing history, etc.).

This potentially malicious software is capable of making itself run every time the computer is turned on or restarted, and it usually also blocks users from accessing specific websites.

“We’ve also seen torrent download sites claiming that they are hosting the Premium version of MBAM with a keygen,” says malware intelligence analyst Jovi Umawing. In this particular case, the fake software is simply a lure to make users fill in a survey before being allowed to download it.

Users are urged not to trust these schemes and, if interested in trying out the AV software, to download a trial version from the company website.

This, of course, won’t help with their wish to have a paid solution for free, but they should be aware that accepting offers such as those described earlier rarely lead to a good outcome.