This week the Rogue Blog reports a strong surge in a different type of rogue, one that pretends to be a system utility. Typical scareware pretends to be antivirus software, "finds" all kinds of threats, and demands that you pay before it will clean up the pretend problems it found. Utility-style scareware follows a similar pattern. It pretends to find errors on your system such as disk fragmentation or file system integrity problems. Naturally the scan is free; naturally you have to pay if you want to fix the alleged system problems.
The Rogue Blog post pointing out this trend includes numerous screenshots and identifies many of the culprits by name. UltraDefragger, ScanDisk, and WinHDD are among the real-sounding names used by current fraudulent system utilities.
How can you distinguish a fake optimization tool from a real one? If you see a report from a utility that you never installed and never launched, it's probably a fraud. If the utility comes advertised in a spam message, Sunbelt suggests you avoid it. The rogues invariably display dire warnings about system problems, but don't reject every warning. A legitimate disk utility might do the same if your system is truly failing.
Here's an odd one: apparently these rogue utilities will often tell you that you must update your browser to a version earlier than what you're actually running.
If you're careful you can avoid getting burned. Don't ever rely on a third-party system utility that you didn't install or launch, as it's almost certainly a fraud.
Your antivirus software or security suite should protect you from rogues of any kind, providing you keep it up to date. And when you go shopping for disk tools do a little research to make sure they're legitimate. Check PCMag.com for reviews, to start, and Google the name to see if others are reporting problems. If you're still not sure, a visit to the Rogue Blog should clear up any confusion.
Originally posted on Yahoo News
