Malenglish

Yesterday’s post nearly didn’t make it to the blog. My computer was invaded by malware. A rogue antivirus program calling itself Antivirus Soft that displays an unstoppable stream of false reports of threats and bogus pop-ups to make you think your computer is infested with viruses. Then it offers to remove the infections if you buy the full version of the program. The reports and pop-ups are plausible - they name real files - but they are all false and I knew it within moments. Still, it took me the rest of the day to get rid of Antivirus Soft and repair the mischief it had done.

How did I first know it was a scam? Because, as with the many email scams that clutter up our Spam folders, the messages were in ‘funny English’. Here’s an example:

Windows reports that computer is infected… Click here for the scan your computer.

Definitely not Microsoft style.

Antivirus Soft obviously uses less-than-expert localizers. But in the case of malware, the poor English is for once a good thing.

REFERENCE
Remove Antivirus Soft. Description and removal instructions. http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-antivirus-soft.html.