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The software purveyor behind AntiVirus XP, a fake anti-virus package, has been sued and will hopefully be put out of business.Microsoft Corp. and the state of Washington this week filed lawsuits against a slew of "scareware" purveyors, scam artists who use fake security alerts to frighten consumers into paying for worthless computer security software.The case filed by the Washington attorney general's office names Texas-based Branch Software and its owner James Reed McCreary IV, alleging that McCreary's company caused targeted PCs to pop up misleading security alerts about security threats on the victims' computers. The alerts warned users that their systems were "damaged and corrupted"The lawsuits were filed under Washington's Computer Spyware Act, which among other things punishes individuals who prey on user concerns regarding spyware or other threats. Specifically, the law makes it illegal to misrepresent the extent to which software is required for computer security or privacy, and it provides actual damages or statutory damages of $100,000 per violation, whichever is greaterquote]Those of us who have had to remove this disaster from folks pcs will be very happy indeed to see the back of it, although as usual a more just solution would be to ensure they paid their victims compensation and not some company or govt entity that keeps any award of revenue for itself.This is the scam software to beware of.Antivirus 2009, Malwarecore, WinDefender, WinSpywareProtect, XPDefender, Registry Cleaner XP
