Is AntiVir actually a spyware

[mattpegher]

I had two of my pc's come up with popups from some program called "Antivir" which was claiming that my pc was vulnerable and suggesting that I buy their program. One of the pc's has norton 2010 and windows 7 and it was able to prevent the installation of any software, (I think) but the other with windows xp and older version of norton let the program install. I ran Malwarebyte on both machines which seemed to clear this up.
Has anyone else run into this program? Am I right to assume that it was a malignant program? Is there anything else to worry about?

 

[balloonshark]

Was it this one? http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2035468 or this one? http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-antivir

Even this "expert" was fooled until a few folks helped him realize that the person he was helping had the rogue version. http://www.askwoody.com/2009/dump-avira/

Avira Antivir is actually a really good antivirus program. I'm running the free version right now. http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

The first 3 links are examples of rogue software. It's really sad but lately there have been a ton of people getting infected with this type of software. MalwareBytes is good at removing rogues but I would still scan with other quality scanners to make sure nothing else was able to sneak in. You could try SuperAntiSpyware's free "scan only" version if you want a second opinion. www.superantispyware.com

 

[mattpegher]

It was the second link at bleepingcomputers. I new it looked fishy. Thanks

 

[SlickR12345]

Best thing is to avoid each and every ad on the web.
Even if they are legit programs they are irritating and no one likes ads.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You could try SuperAntiSpyware's free "scan only" version if you want a second opinion. www.superantispyware.com

Free scan-only version? Are you saying that the free version of SAS no longer cleans? It used to.

 

[balloonshark]

Free scan-only version? Are you saying that the free version of SAS no longer cleans? It used to.

I was in a hurry. The free version scans and cleans. The paid version offers "real time" protection.

It's hard to come up with the proper words as "on demand scanner" confuses most people.

Usually you have to explain everything by saying "it's and on demand only scanner that doesn't provide real-time protection. For real time protection you would need to buy the paid/full version". I was lazy and took a short cut.

 

[jae]

Tried to take a shortcut but got lost!