If you have mistakenly fallen for this scam and purchased a license, be sure to contact your credit card company and dispute the charge as fraud.
FAKE VIRUS TEST YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
If it is expiring, you should instead renew the license through your software or by going directly to the web site of your security software. If it is installed, open the software and check when your license expires. Most antivirus software will alert a customer that their license is expiring via notification from the software, but some companies do send emails as "reminders" about expiring licenses.Īs email scammers tend to send their scams to large lists of email addresses without knowing what antivirus software a recipient is using, the first step is to make sure you have the mentioned antivirus software installed. For the scam shown above, this would net the rogue affiliate approximately $10 per sale.Īffiliates who have large volumes of sales will typically earn a higher commission rate. When a victim purchases the software, the affiliate will earn anywhere between a fixed $10 commission or 20% of the total sale. When the link is clicked, the user will be redirected through the DigitalRiver affiliate network, which drops a tracking cookie on the browser, and then redirects the user to a purchase page for Norton or McAfee as shown below.Īffiliate scam: From email to purchase page The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when run (it prints the message.
Most products react to it as if it were a virus (though they typically report it with an obvious name, such as EICAR-AV-Test). It is safe to pass around, because it is not a virus, and does not include any fragments of viral code. The scam starts with emails containing a subject similar to "WARNING: Anti-Virus Can Expire " Sun, "", which contains a link stating, "Your Protection Can Expire TODAY!". This test file has been provided to EICAR for distribution as the EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File, and it satisfies all the criteria listed above. We became aware of this new scam after being told about it by two seniors who received the emails, with one of them falling for the scam and purchasing the software, thinking the email was legitimate.
Over the past week, BleepingComputer became aware of scam emails being sent that tell recipients that their Norton and McAfee antivirus software is expiring that day and prompting them to renew their license. Scam emails state your antivirus software is expiring
FAKE VIRUS TEST YOUR ANTIVIRUS HOW TO
Rogue security software affiliates are sending emails that falsely tell recipients that their antivirus software is expiring and then prompt them to renew their license so that the affiliate can earn a commission from the sale.Ī software affiliate is a third-party that refers visitors to a software company to earn a commission from the sale of their software.Īll legitimate companies that offer an affiliate program have strict guidelines on how to promote their software and prohibit misleading and false advertising from tricking people into purchasing software.