 | |
 Screenshot of the WinFixer homepage | |
Type of site | Scareware |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Innovative Marketing, Inc. |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Not required |
| Current status | Shut down by the United States federal government |
Content license | Not protected by copyright laws; see ex turpi causa non oritur actio |
WinFixer[a] was a family of scareware rogue security programs developed by Winsoftware which claimed to repair computer system problems on Microsoft Windows computers if a user purchased the full version of the software. The software was mainly installed without the user's consent.[1] McAfee claimed that "the primary function of the free version appears to be to alarm the user into paying for registration, at least partially based on false or erroneous detections."[2] The program prompted the user to purchase a paid copy of the program.[3]
The WinFixer web page (see the image) said it "is a useful utility to scan and fix any system, registry and hard drive errors. It ensures system stability and performance, frees wasted hard-drive space and recovers damaged Word, Excel, music and video files." However, these claims were never verified by any reputable source. In fact, most sources considered this program to actually reduce system stability and performance. The sites went defunct in December 2008 after actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "Winfixer". F-secure.com. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
- ^ "Computer Virus Attacks, Information, News, Security, Detection and Removal | McAfee". Us.mcafee.com. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
- ^ "WinFixer". Symantec. Archived from the original on March 24, 2008. Retrieved 2014-08-14.