Yes, it is true, Symantec has reported that millions of computers actually have fake security software installed.  Even though most of these computer owners paid for the security software, it may be fake and actually makes their computer even more vulnerable.  Typical names of fake security software included, Antivirus 2010, Spyware Guard 2008 among the 250 varieties that Symantec found.

While reading the article I can think of a few times that I have seen popups on my system regarding some antivirus software, but I have NEVER purchased anything like that.  According to the report on Yahoo Tech, the number of people affected by such a scam is in the “tens of millions”.  That is a lot!

I started to think about how these cyber-criminals can get the software delivered so fast and then I read about “affiliates”.  These are middlemen that will actually try and convince you to download said programs and they will earn money for each download they refer.  Of course, this also might take them right out of the equation if big brother is watching and arrests are made.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

I have been involved in affiliate marketing in the past, but never thought about how much worse a scam can be if you have affiliates pushing the products as well. I hope that if you have downloaded one of these programs, you know how to get rid of it.