Don’t Be Fooled By Adware & Scareware

Advertising is a half trillion dollar industry world wide.

Because of the amount of money spent on advertising, people are always looking for new creative ways to get more advertisements to you, and more importantly get ones that you will click on.  From simple tracking cookies, which watch what kinds of websites you browse and provide targeted ads based off of your browsing history, to toolbars and other browser extensions that redirect your searches through referral links or paid search engines, to even virus-like scareware that preys off of a lack of computer knowledge to trick you into paying for things you do not need.

The bad news is this stuff is everywhere.  The good news is we can help.

Not only do these annoying pieces of software take up much of the available work space in your internet browser, but they can also slow your internet browser to a crawl as they all try to track what you’re browsing and deliver advertisements to you.  Because of the shady nature of online advertising, many of the advertisements you receive through adware programs and toolbars can also lead to further infections on your computer as well.  Be aware of what you’re installing and what tag-along programs are being installed with it.

Scareware is software that preys off users with a lack of technical computer knowledge, in order to scare them into thinking they need to purchase something that they do not.

Scareware comes in many different flavors, commonly being seen as banner ads on websites that flash warnings about possible infections, registry errors, driver issues, etc, or as fake anti-virus programs. Keep an eye out for the sudden appearance of a new anti-virus program that claims you have tons of new infections, often times coupled with the computer suddenly running extremely poorly, often time with limited access to the internet. These are common symptoms of a scareware virus, and purchasing their “software” will only resolve the issues for a short while, after which they’ll return demanding you spend more money to fix the same issues.

Because of the volume of adware and scareware out there, the only real way to know the difference between real software and malicious or scam software is experience, and we have a lot of that here at N-Sync. If your system is running slow, if you’ve got weird pop ups that you’ve never seen before claiming you have infections or problems with your computer, or if you just want to make sure your browsing activity isn’t being tracked, contact us or bring the machine by the shop and our skilled techs will go through and make sure it is fully cleaned.