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G Data reports a 35% increase in fake antivirus software in the past 15 months, leading to the creation of this tool which addresses the most active fake AV program ’System Tool’. After installation, the fake AV programs, also referred to as ’scareware’, notify the user of an infection on the system. To ’disinfect’ a PC, the programs instruct the user to purchase a ’full version’.

"The development and deployment of scareware has become a highly profitable business. Fake antivirus programs have a double benefit for cyber criminals: they receive money from users who purchased a ’full version’ of their useless tools and they get hold of the victims’ credit card data. To make matters worse: the fake AV programs often also put online criminals in a position that allows them to download additional malware onto their victims’ computers", explains Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data. "Scareware offers a huge pay off for the e-crime community. ‘System Tool’ type fake programs, among which you can also find ’WinHDD’ have been spread widely in the past 12 months."