Fake Antivirus Industry Down, But Not Out
Summary: Several fake antivirus promotion programs, including Gagarincash, Gizmo, Nailcash, Best AV, Blacksoftware and Sevantivir.com, ceased operating or warned affiliates they might not be paid, following an international law enforcement push and the June 23 arrest of ChronoPay co-founder Pavel Vrublevsky in Moscow. Russian police searching ChronoPay's offices found evidence employees ran technical and customer support for fake AV programs including MacDefender, and that its computers supported the rogue pharmacy program Rx-Promotion.
Key Takeaway: Fake AV affiliates pay roughly $75 to $900 for 1,000 installs and can expect about one in 50 victims to pay $25 to $35, which researcher Damon McCoy describes as making four or five times the investment - so the closures reflect a payment-processing disruption, not a broken business model.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Cybercrime & Law Enforcement
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