Scareware is a phantom malware program^[0] that attempts to frighten users into purchasing or downloading a fake anti-virus^[1] or security software, or taking other actions. However, such scareware is often little more than an image or message pop-up^[2] or an application with code that might create the impression of device compromise.^[3] Scareware often has no malicious payload itself, the true harm comes from the user's reaction to it, where they may then be directed by the scareware to download actual malware which is advertised as a malware cure.

See also

• Ransomware
• Fileless Ransomware
• Crypto Ransomware
• Locker Ransomware

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