Alert: XP Antivirus 2008

Posted by Maxim Weinstein Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:12:00 GMT

Today we are releasing a badware alert about XP Antivirus 2008. Here’s the summary from the alert:

We find that XP Antivirus 2008 (Unregistered Version) is badware because it makes deceptive claims of system vulnerabilities in order to induce users to purchase the full version of the software, because it interferes with normal computer use by automatically running a background process which repeatedly prompts the user to take a previously declined action, and because the software cannot be uninstalled using the Windows Add/Remove Programs tool, or without downloading an additional uninstaller.

In trying to contact the producer, Innovagest 2000, we noted that the support address for XP Antivirus 2008, support@xpantivirus.com, bounced as “user unknown.” (We did find another address for the company, support@innovagest2000.com, that worked, but we did not receive a response.)