Fake antivirus (AV) programs have been utilized to defraud millions of computer users into
paying as much as one hundred dollars for a phony software license. As a result, fake AV
software has evolved into one of the most lucrative criminal operations on the Internet. In this
paper, we examine the operations of three large-scale fake AV businesses, lasting from
three months to more than two years. More precisely, we present the results of our analysis
on a trove of data obtained from several backend servers that the cybercriminals used to …

Fake antivirus (AV) programs have been utilized to defraud millions ofcomputer users into
paying as much as one hundred dollars for a phony softwarelicense. As a result, fake AV
software has evolved into one of the most lucrativecriminal operations on the Internet. In this
paper, we examine the operations of threelarge-scale fake AV businesses, lasting from three
months to more than two years. More precisely, we present the results of our analysis on a
trove of data obtainedfrom several backend servers that the cybercriminals used to drive …