How to remove XPAntivirus ?

October 10, 2007, seems to be a big day for rogue security programs: there are three new ones already. The first is called XPAntivirus 2008 (also known as XP Antivirus Protection, XP Antivirus 2009, XP Antivirus 2008 V2.5), in an attempt to sound like a product made by Microsoft, thus giving it an air of legitimacy. The name is not the only thing suggesting this approach, XPAntivirus 2008 is very reminiscent of Microsoft programs designwise, too: the logo, for example, is comprised of a round circle with four colors in it - red, green, blue and yellow - which are the same as the ones in the Windows logo. Once you take a closer look, though, it is apparent that these colors are placed in a different order. The difference is hardly recognisable, because, seriously, how many of us can say which color goes where in the Windows logo? Neither XPAntivirus 2008 nor XPAntivirus2009 are related to Windows XP from Microsoft corp. Setting the differences aside, since, as we all know, similarities are far more important, it is a fact that this program is only truly similar to any other rogue security program, when it comes to the functions. It is similar in the fact that it doesn't work, but pretends that it does, and tries to intimidate you into buying the full version, which doesn't work either.

Apparently, XPAntivirus 2008 tries to be somewhat discrete, an assumption I've made when no advertising program was automatically downloaded in the download section of the program's homepage (either that, or my security tools failed to catch one, which is highly unlikely). The program must be downloaded and installed manually. Instead of the more aggressive approaches to scamming, the makers probably hope that the design will give enough credibility to buy the thing. Either way, what happens is, someone downloads a trial version of the program, performs the scan and gets a falsified report full of bogus threats. Removing these threats is supposedly possible with the full version, and obviously this is not true. Many users are, however, naive, desperate or lacking information enough to buy it.

I have to admit, I haven't seen many rogue security programs with such an appealing design. Contrary to many other of it's predecessors, the homepage of XPAntivirus 2008 doesn't have a million fake logos and the nauseating overall feel of being in a circus with countless poorly matched colors and slogans. Neither does it have issues with grammar or maths. All that aside there are still give-aways of its scammy nature : the "latest virus alerts" and "latest threats" lists include threats as old as the year 2000. The disclaimer reads "We have developed a powerful tool – VirusProtectPro – to help users detect and remove spyware and malware from their PCs," even though the product they're selling is not VirusProtectPro at all. This indicates (or may indicate) two things: they may have also made VirusProtectPro, which is also a scam and even if they did not, hardly would they copy+paste a disclaimer from some other tool, were it anything more than a trap. The "about product" section says that XPAntivirus 2008 has been downloaded 4 million times and that 20,000 more downloads happen weekly, which is quite hard to believe having in mind that it was released yesterday. Last, but not least, the website contains no contact information whatsoever, something that is absurd for a legitimate product.

Don't be hypnotized by the nice design, the promises of effectiveness and other things. If you already bought it, remove it immediately and block XPAntivirus2008.com's URL in your host files.