{"id":5190,"date":"2019-11-05T01:17:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/?p=5190"},"modified":"2025-04-09T20:19:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:49:57","slug":"what-is-scareware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antivirus.comodo.com\/blog\/comodo-news\/what-is-scareware\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Scareware?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scareware is a type of malware that masquerades as real virus protection to trick victims into paying and downloading malicious software to clean up infections it pretends to detect. Such software is potentially dangerous and in order to entice the victim the cybercriminal uses social engineering and fear tactics.<\/p>\n

Cybercriminals today are more advanced than ever, they aim at cheating online users by making use of evolving techniques to worm<\/a> their way into the victim\u2019s computers. Currently, scareware is the sneakiest methods in use to prey on victims and as a result, it ends up compromising the system security. Keep reading this article to know how to evade being victimized.<\/p>\n

Scareware Definition<\/h2>\n

Scareware<\/strong> is also known as deception software, rogue virus protection\/scanner software or fraudware, it reaches computer users in the form of pop-ups. Often, the fake programs carry names sounding like the genuine programs that you’ve often heard of. You can also notice spelling mistakes and poor grammar.<\/p>\n

Vigilantly watch out for the fake virus removal program as it pops up with a dire warning, and that’s the sign that you are about to be scammed. Beware because these programs tend to depict user interface portions from actual virus protection programs.<\/p>\n

Here is a list of some aggressive spyware scams are:<\/p>\n