Fake anti-virus poses as free McAfee VirusScan

Fake anti-virus software (also known as scareware or rogue anti-virus) continues to be a big problem. Malicious hackers create programs that pretend to be legitimate anti-virus products, but are actually designed to frighten you into believing you have security problems with your computer (in the hope that you’ll pay up for a cure).

Overnight our spam traps intercepted a wave of malicious emails claiming to be a free 30 day trial of McAfee VirusScan (which is a legitimate product, of course).

Subject: McAfee VirusScan Plus
Attachment: setup.zip
Message body:

Download a FREE 30-day Trial of MCAfee VirusScan Plus and Be Automaticaly Entered to Win

Installation file attached

Sophos detects the attached file as Mal/FakeAV-EI. If you want to try McAfee VirusScan please go to…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.