Ford Fights Against Scammers, Warns Users of Malicious Code

After Chrysler warned users that some US residents have been targeted by a lottery scam aiming to steal their money and private information, another American car manufacturer starts the fight against this kind of illegal activity. It appears that Ford has been hit by a so-called black hat SEO attack that attempted to direct visitors towards a malicious website distributing infected software.

The whole process was fairly simple: people using Google or other search engines looking for certain Ford information were assaulted by a number of malicious websites. Once the visitor entered the page, a fake video asked him to download and install a video codec in order to be able to play the multimedia content.

Basically, the downloaded software acts just like any regular antivirus application but, instead of warning of real threats, it assaults the user with all kinds of fake alerts. What's the catch, you may ask. Well, in order to clean the computer of these so-called infections, the user has to purchase the full version of the application, thus sending money to the scammers.

There's only possible solution to block these attempts: refuse to download and install any potential dangerous application that comes from suspicious websites. Furthermore, Ford has already confirmed that it is currently working with Google and other search engines to eliminate the malicious websites so they should all disappear in a few days or so.

Meanwhile, it should be a smart choice to update you antivirus and stay away from unknown websites. Antivirus companies have already started updating their solutions with the "antidot" so, in case you use such an application, you should remain on the safe side for the time being.