You don’t need to be reminded by me that you need to protect your PC with an anti-virus programme, keep your anti-virus definitions up to date and act on any warnings about infections by malware / crapware.
However, if you find yourself receiving warnings from a program called XP Antivirus 2008 or Vista Antivirus 2008 then do not follow it’s instructions.
(Oh My God! have I lost my mind??
Don’t follow instructions from an anti-virus program??)
Why am I advising you not to respond to these programs?
That’s because these programmes aren’t real anti-virus programs at all! What they are is scams that generate fake virus warnings to persuade you to buy some software or other in-order to cure the infection (if it even exists).
However, if you do buy this program, you will find yourself in even more of a state because 9 times out of 10 you’ll be buying, downloading and installing even more malicious software!
OK, so what can you do to protect yourself against scams such as these?
I did write an article about protecting yourself against malware previously but here is a quick, bulleted list:
1) Install reliable Anti-Virus
2) Protect your PC from malware with a firewall
3) Keep your Operating System up to date
4) Use updated anti adware / spyware technology
(The original article can be found here: Protect Your PC From Malware)
Stay Clean!!
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