'Scareware' nets scammers millions

Cybercriminals behind the fake anti-virus products that claim your PC is infected and demand money to fix the problem are making big bucks, a report has claimed.

Security firm Symantec said that criminals pushing the 'scareware' - also referred to as rogueware - are making some 850,000 a year.

The scam, which was first widely noted when a product called 'Antivirus XP' began asking surfers to pay up in order to have non-existent infections cleaned from their computers, has exploded recently.

Symantec said that there are now more than 250 different scareware programs in circulation, many of which can be encountered when a surfer visits a completely legitimate website.

"Where scareware differs from ID theft is that once set up, the whole victimisation process is automated by malicious software, from dissemination, to infection, to the scam, to the collection of money," said Professor David S Wall of Leeds University.

"In this way it is a significant cybercrime development. It is solely the spawn of the internet and a true cybercrime by my definition - take away the internet and it disappears. One scammer can scam millions simultaneously," Professor Wall continued.