Description of this SCAM
This is a legal Internet 'Scam' which tries to scare you into buying a product. In other words without actually lying or breaking the law it over sells a product using fear.

This is what happens, when you go to a site,  a 'pop-up' window appears on your screen and warns you similar to the fake one that follows below: 

In the fake popup above that you may see, it can be worded in many different ways to make you believe your computer has a "problem" and they can HELP you by buying their useless software...OR...YOU COULD INSTANTLY DOWNLOAD (when you click OK), any number of destructive or malicious programs that are instantly installed on your computer without you knowing it and could show up later as "crazy stuff" going on with your computer that is not supposed to happen. Many hackers use this method in emails also.


Your web browser may display a full page advertisement for the product behind the warning and the page is frozen until you click OK. And for most people that don't know any better, they just click OK in fear!.The web page you will then see is on another web site that attempts to sell you the download by using fear tactics. The download does NOTHING after you buy it!

Where does the Scam download come from?
It can be found by clicking an an innocent looking ADD BANNER.
I have seen it ALL OVER THE INTERNET AT MANY DIFFERENT WEB SITES THAT I HAD NEVER VISITED BEFORE!
It may also be "hidden" in other advertisements on web sites and imbeded in shareware/adware programs.

What to do if you see a popup similar to the one shown above?

The best thing to do is:
click OK. BUT...if you are worried what will happen, then just shut down the computer or 
click on the 'Back' or 'Home' buttons on your brower to leave the scam web site.
Then close down any pop-up window trying to offer you any other product.

So how exactly does this scam work on your mental state when you first see it?

It uses "fear" and scare tactics!

The first statement: 

"Your computer is "broadcasting" your IP address.

This is TRUE! However it should not alarm you at all! Here's why:
When you click on any web link on any web page, the web server you conntect to has to be able to respond to YOUR specific computer out of millions of computers online at any one time so it can send you the web page you are requesting by clicking on the link. Much like telling the server your specific "telephone number" so it can call you back. This is absolutly a necessity or you could not get the information to be sent to your computer from the server!

It's not a breach of privacy; it's how the internet works!
If the server did not know "who" called it, your internet would be useless!

The second statement claims:

"Once anyone has your IP address, they can immediately begin attacking your computer"
This is also true. It does happen; there are bad people out there who will hack into systems for fun or profit.  There are real threats online, and you do need protection, but would you want to purchase a "product" from a scam artist??

The third scare statement:

Tries to make the sale.
It's clearly intended to make you think that their product will prevent the problem and it will protect you from the hackers and scammers...which is really them!

Conclusion...If you see this or similar suspected "scams" anywhere on the internet, just close it down and ignore it! If you think you need a web security product, do your research and buy one or more security products to help protect you from these criminals!
 
AND REMEMBER..

Every time you "click",
when on the internet..... you are BROADCASTING YOUR IP ADDRESS! 




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