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Rob Beard wrote: > Paul Sutton wrote: >> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/29/scareware_monger_sued/ >> >> What I found funny with these registry scanners is that they would pop >> up, scan my hdd, and report a problem, even when I was using Linux, >> >> Paul >> > Thing is, they don't actually scan anything. The most basic ones just > display either an animated GIF or Flash based message and at best they > detect you're running Linux from the strings in the browser. Some do scan some stuff. These are worse still because they may spot something that is wrong, and thus convince the unwary that they are useful/genuine. One I remember seeing would scan your cookies and report those from the big tracking companies as invasive of privacy (doubleclick, preferences.com etc), and if you then allowed it to install would then go on to install third party advertising software into your MS Windows box, and basically own your computer in all the worst ways possible. It is when the people who do the dirty on you are ones you trust you end up in big trouble. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html