Scareware is fake antivirus software that scans your PC and claims to find nonexistent computer viruses which can be removed by purchasing special antivirus software costing anywhere between $30 and $70. This antivirus software which you purchase does not clean your computer and can be a virus itself.

Scareware is a very popular method used by cyber criminals and is one of the fastest growing types of internet fraud. Around a million computers every single day can be affected by this scam and the cyber criminals are set to rake in around $300 million in illegal profits.

It has been announced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that one of the main culprits in the spread of this type of scareware is Innovative Marketing based in the Ukraine which is a world leading software producer. The owners of Innovative Marketing were charged with computer and wire fraud last month and have already been request to pay $163 million.

According to the FTC Innovative Marketing have been spreading scareware since as far back as 2003 and placing adverts for the scareware on well known websites. The company was caught after a researcher from McAfee investigated the company’s servers in 2008.

Amazingly the servers were not password protected and the information retrieved enabled the researcher to discover Innovative Marketing was spreading fake antivirus software on a huge scale, with sales of the fake antivirus software raking in $180 million in sales in 2008 alone.

Scareware is hard to combat because many of the cybercriminals operate from countries with a poor legal system which makes it hard to catch and punish the perpetrators. The Ukraine is realising that these cybercriminals need to be stopped and have introduced a crime unit to fight this sort of crime. Although it is tough to combat such powerful companies who can provide young programmers with a job when there is a shortage of jobs available.

Although Innovative Marketing appears to have shut their operations down many of the scareware products linked to the company are still running. It is possible they are operating under a different name and location. To protect yourself from this scam make sure you are vigilant online and do not purchase any antivirus software unless you have read an antivirus review and you know it is the real deal.

Keep safe online make sure you have the best antivirus software installed on your computer.