Scareware business

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Scareware is fraudulent software that uses deceptive advertising to trick users into believing they're infected with some variety of malware, then convinces them to pay money to protect themselves. The infection isn't real, and the software they buy is fake, too. It's all a scam.

The operator of an alleged "scareware" scheme, using deceptive advertising to trick Internet users into buying software to fix their supposedly infected computers, will pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission US$8.2 million to settle a complaint brought by the agency, the FTC said.
The interesting part is that this guy sold more than 1 million software products, with names such as Winfixer, Drive Cleaner and Antivirus XP, to remove the malware the bogus scans had supposedly detected, and he charged $39.95 or more for the software packages, the FTC said.
So he is refunding 8 out of 40 millions illegally adquired and even if he will have to shut down the business I'm sure he will not complain too much for his exceptional return on investment.

Read more:

• Alleged 'scareware' Vendors to Pay $8.2 Million to FTC (pcworld.com)