We have seen a lot of computers coming in to the shop lately from owners who have fallen victim to scareware scams. Probably the most popular has been the people who download a program called Antivirus XP 2008 or Antivirus XP 2009. The users receive a series of pop-ups stating their computer is infected. If the user responds to the warning, he is urged to buy the program to disinfect the machine. The problem is, all it does is install more malware.

According to the Denver Post, who ran an article about this in their business section, this type of online scheme has recently become the target of a concerted law-enforcement effort by the Washington state attorney general's office with the assistance of Microsoft's computer security investigators.

"The big problem with scareware is that you have voluntarily provided personal information to a website that you would not ordinarily want to have your name, address, credit card and date of birth," said Richard Boscovich, a Microsoft lawyer who leads a group of security investigators at the company.

While Antivirus XP 2008 and Antivirus XP 2009 do provide limited antivirus capabilities, it is a far cry from what a real antivirus program does.

If you get a pop-up telling you your computer is infected with viruses and inviting you to install Antivirus XP 2008 or Antivirus XP 2009, DO NOT DO IT. If you do, you'll be paying someone like us to clean it off for you later after you are infected with other viruses, too, or your computer quits running things like it's supposed to.

If you have already downloaded it, the techs at Doty Computers do know how to remove it without wiping your hard drive. The guys down the street will tell you it can't be done and you'll have to wipe and reinstall everything. We understand that most people do not want to lose their files.