How to Tell If an Anitvirus Is Spam
- 1). Look for poor grammar in the error messages. There will also be small errors in punctuation.
- 2). Look at the name of the fake program. The software will usually have a cheesy-sounding name. Some examples of names used by these programs are Antivirus Live, Spyware Police and Antivirus 360. (Downloadsquad)
- 3). Watch the virus scanner. When a rogue antivirus program claims to be scanning your computer, it is really just making up fake infections. You can tell because the virus scan is finding random infections in places that don't match the folder that is currently being scanned. For example, if the program is scanning through C:\Documents and Settings and is finding things in C:\Windows or c:\Temp, it is a fake scan.
- 4). Watch the alerts. If they are saying that Windows is finding viral infections on your system, this would indicate that the program is fake because Windows will not alert the user of a virus on the system.
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