Scareware: Clicker Beware

Just because it's done over the Internet, doesn't mean that no law covers it. This applies to fraud, too, of course. This sort of thing is still in the news because malware companies continue to profit on users' lack of understanding of their own machines. You don't need to turn into a master haxx0r, but you should at least know about things like virus scans, which are *not* done in massive batches via the Internet by total strangers, but initiated by you via your home system.

Maybe laws should be extended to allow for public pillory of malware merchants, so passersby could swat at them with their mousepads.

Rule One is, of course, never trust a browser pop-up. Ever. Ever-ever. If you're a Windows user and one of these faux warnings pops up, just right-click on it and select "Properties". When you see it's a Protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol, Type: [Browser] Document, then the scam will be exposed for what it is: a bunch of bee ess. Besides, if your machine were really corrupted, you wouldn't need a pop-up to tell you about it.