Rogue Antivirus Program Comes With Tech Support

In an effort to boost sales, sellers of a fake antivirus product known as Live PC Care are offering their victims live technical support.

According to researchers at Symantec, once users have installed the program, they see a screen, falsely informing them that their PC
is infected with several types of malware. That's typical of this type of program. What's unusual, however, is the fact that the free
trial version of Live PC Care includes a big yellow "online support" button.

Clicking on the button connects the victim with an agent, who will answer questions about the product via instant message.

Symantec says the agent is no automated script, but in fact a live person. This lends an "air of legitimacy" to the program, said Marc
Fossi, with Symantec Security Response. "Obviously if they've got live tech support, it must be real," he joked.

The tech support doesn't help much, though. According to Symantec, the support staff simply try to convince victims to shell out
between US $30 and $100 for the product.

This isn't the first time a fake security product has been spotted offering tech support. Another company called Innovative
Marketing operated a call center to support its security products, including a program called WinFixer. According to security
experts, Innovative Marketing's tech support technicians acted in the same way as Live PC Care's, trying to reassure victims
that they were buying a legitimate product.

Read Original Article Via) Computerworld Security News .)