There are new fake programs, heavily touted on most search engines, which claim to remove spyware and adware with a hysterical pitch that urges PC users to download the program for free. Invariably, after scanning the hard drive for problem software, it finds a dozen or even hundreds of files that represent "severe" infections. To get rid of them, however, users have to pay by credit card. A handful of these programs even install their own brands of adware and spyware.
According to Eric Howes, who runs the website www.spywarewarrior.com which evaluates bogus spyware eliminators, the authors of these programs try to mimic the name or home page of one of the top two legitimate anti-spyware programs - Spybot Search and Destroy (www.security.kolla.de) and Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com). They also use so-called "index spam" to manipulate Google and other search engines and push their products to top rankings.
