NEW YORK, June 7 (UPI) -- U.S. software giant Microsoft said the number of anti-virus protection scams for computers grew in the second half of 2009.
Microsoft measures the scams by the number of times computer owners used its free Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Microsoft's program wipes out what is known as "scareware" -- pop-up ads that scare users into purchasing fake anti-virus software, USA Today reported Monday.
Microsoft said its anti-scareware program had been used to clean 7.8 million computers July 2009 through December 2009. From January 2009 through June 2009, the program cleaned 5.3 million computers.
"Quite simply, scareware is booming," said Roel Schouwenberg, a researcher at the Kaspersky Lab home computer security firm.
Anti-virus software firm McAfee said the number of fake anti-software pop-up ads had grown 10 times since just two years ago.
Court records show one Ukrainian company, Innovative Marketing, made more than $163 million selling phony anti-virus protection to computer owners before it was shut down.
With easy access to credit cards, scareware businesses "can thumb their noses at the world, confident there likely will be no repercussions," said Andrew Brandt at anti-virus company Webroot.
