As if the Internet wasn't enough of an obstacle course anyway -- what with popup windows, spam, and online scams -- there's always another kind of malicious software to worry about. The latest and not-so-greatest of these is called “scareware,” named for how it gets your attention by scaring the daylights out of you.

Have you ever been surfing the Web, when all of a sudden you get a notice saying you've got viruses on your computer? These are not always your friendly antivirus program trying to alert you to a problem. Scammers can create popup windows that look like regular Windows alerts, but are actually malicious ads. If it doesn't look like your normal antivirus program, beware! And we'll go over some things to look for, even if it does.

First, it helps to understand what these scam artists are trying to accomplish. Whereas the viruses we're used to are usually designed with your simple annoyance and frustration in mind, scareware is generally geared toward financial gain. The fictional “warnings” you see are intended to scare you into purchasing their software, which will either do nothing for you, or actually create new system problems. In some cases, you can end up with malware that hijacks your computer until you pay for their software (aptly referred to as “ransomware”).
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