Microsoft to Fight Scourge of 'Scareware'

Microsoft has teamed with the Washington State Attorney General's Office to crack down on so called "scareware" merchants both believe are threats against PC users. Scareware is a loathsome breed of malware that scares you with pop-up messages such as "virus found on your PC" or "Warning! Your PC is infected." Of course the only way to "fix" the problem is to install the advertiser's software to neutralize the threat. The problem is most often no problem actually exist and the scareware is just, well, trying to scare you into buying something you don't need. And unfortunately many unsuspecting PC users are duped into handing over their money.

To fight this nasty practice Microsoft and the state of Washington are filing a lawsuit against the Texas-based company Branch Software and its creator James Reed McCreary IV which both allege is engaged in "scareware tactics." McCreary's software, Registry Cleaner XP, the lawsuit claims advertises itself as a pop-up window claiming that the system has been "damaged and corrupted" and redirects you to Branch Software's Website to download the software for $39.95. Upon download the software tells you that it has cleared your PC of 43 threats, however it finds the same 43 threats on every system it is tested on.

Better PR for Microsoft Than Seinfeld?

Microsoft and the state of Washington are also targeting other alleged scareware software with "John Doe" lawsuits which hope to reveal the identities of the people responsible for the software. Those other alleged scareware threats being targeted by Microsoft include Antivirus 2009, Malwarecore, WinDefender, WinSpyProtect, and XPDefender. These all have legitimate sounding names, but when installed actually install malware and Trojans that can infect your computer to the point of preventing you from rebooting to a previously safe state, allege Microsoft.

What's this, good PR for Microsoft? Could it be? After Microsoft spent big bucks on ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld that have been called odd and ineffective, this looks like Microsoft's smartest PR move yet to win the respect of PC users.

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