Scammers Are Using a Fake Version of AdwCleaner to Trick People

The latest trend in the awful Windows ecosystem is pretty ridiculous — scammers have a fake version of the reputable AdwCleaner tool, which is a real tool for Windows experts. And this one pretends your computer is infected and tries to make you pay them to remove it.

AdwCleaner is indeed a real freeware tool, with a good reputation for removing spyware and adware. It’s not as well known as MalwareBytes because it’s not all that user friendly, since it is meant for Windows experts rather than regular users. And the scammers have tried to mimic the interface, stealing the logo, and even ripping out the icon (badly) for their fake version.

Fake AdwCleaner is Being Distributed Through Adware Infections

The ironic thing is that this is getting on people’s PCs that are already infected with adware or spyware of some type, which then keep popping up windows to a page that looks like this one… which tells you that adware is detected. Which is surprisingly accurate, although the fake app isn’t going to remove that adware.



Once you click through that dialog, it’ll give you a scary message like this, telling you to download AdwCleaner. Since you’ve probably heard your geeky friends talking about AdwCleaner, a normal user might be tempted to download it.



If you make the mistake of downloading and running this fake AdwCleaner, you’ll be quickly presented with a window that looks an awful lot like the real thing.



Once the fake one finishes scanning, it’ll present you with a dialog saying your PC is completely infected with spyware and browser hijackers, and then it’ll offer to remove it, as long as you pay $59.99 to them through Paypal. And of course that fire sale ends tomorrow.

It’s important to note here that the real AdwCleaner is completely free. You can download it from AdwCleaner




Source:
http://www.howtogeek.com/209654/scammers-are-using-a-fake-version-of-adwcleaner-to-trick-people/