Antivirus Smart Protection is another malware application that is aimed at misleading unsuspecting users into thinking their computers are seriously compromised. After Antivirus Smart Protection has created the impression of many system errors and problems, it will try to lure the PC user into thinking he can rely on the services Antivirus Smart Protection provides. This fake tool pretends to be a legitimate anti-spyware application. It wants to delude the users into believing they have to pay for the full version of Antivirus Smart Protection to solve system problems and fix errors. Furthermore, Antivirus Smart Protection misleads computer users into thinking it can protect their PCs and the information stored on them. Antivirus Smart Protection does not let the user know about its true intentions and malicious plan. The tricky application would do anything to make the person pay for its bogus services. However, Antivirus Smart Protection will not protect the PC of the user. On the contrary, it will make it vulnerable and make it possible for other infections to penetrate into the system.
Figure 1. Antivirus Smart Protection screenshot
Antivirus Smart Protection is a member of the Rogue.VirusDoctor family. Just as all the other members of this rogueware family, Antivirus Smart Protection is reported to be a fake security application that imitates the actions and layout of a genuine AV application. This deceitful tool targets computers all over the world and sneaks into their systems without the knowledge of their owners. Moreover, Antivirus Smart Protection even does not need the approval of the PC user to penetrate into his machine and install itself. After the malicious program has gained access to your system, it will create many compromised files that will be located in the %UserProfile%\Recent\ folder. The next step of the malicious intruder is to start showing misleading system messages. Antivirus Smart Protection will pretend that these messages are trustworthy system warnings. The messages will show the following information:
Warning! Spambot detected!
Attention! A spambot sending viruses to your e-mail contacts has been detected on your PC.
Warning! Identity theft attempt detected
Recommended: Please click “Remove All” button to erase all infected files and protect your PC.
System Alert
Antivirus Smart Protection has detected potentially harmful software in your system. It is strongly recommended that you register Antivirus Smart Protection to remove all found threats immediately.
System Alert
Potentially harmful programs have been detected in your system and need to be dealt with immediately. Click here to remove them using Antivirus Smart Protection.
Warning! Virus Detected
Threat Detected: Trojan-Spy.HTML.BankFraud.ra
Recommended: Please click “Remove All” button to erase all infected files and protect your PC.
Even if you try to close them and stop them, they will continue popping up again and again. Not only that, but Antivirus Smart Protection will also scan your system for errors and compromised files. The final scan results will show many infected files which need to be removed immediately. Antivirus Smart Protection will tell you that if you do not delete the compromised files, your system will crash, and the results will be fatal. However, even if you try to remove the infected files, Antivirus Smart Protection will not allow you to do that. It will tell you that you can do that only using the full version of Antivirus Smart Protection for which you have to pay. The attacker will take you to its billing page and ask you to submit your personal and bank account details in order to purchase the registered version of the program. If you look at the web page, you will see that there is little information about Antivirus Smart Protection. The aim of the web site is not to provide you with information about the AV tool and the services it provides, but to make you submit your payment details and buy the program.
Do not be tricked by the fake messages and know that Antivirus Smart Protection is aimed at taking your money. The fake program will not provide you with security services after that. It will even put your whole system in danger. Remove the intruder as soon as you can. Use a legitimate and reliable AV application.
*SpyHunter’s free scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware suite to remove the malware threats.