A few months ago, maybe even longer than that, I came across the Web Of Trust. I believe it was while I was searching for new Firefox add-ons. Just out of curiosity, I installed it. At the time, I didn’t realize what a valuable tool it would turn out to be.

Here’s WOT‘s own description:

WOT is a free Internet security addon for your browser. It will keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky website. It’s easy and it’s free.

So, yesterday, I had a customer tell me that he was having trouble installing some antispyware. Feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up, I asked him what the name of the program was. He told me it was “Spyware Detector”. It sounded suspicious and I let him know that. Then I started to do some research.

I went to the WOT site and typed in “spywaredetector.com“. BINGO! The site had been reported as “dangerous”. Then I did a whois search on the same domain. I saw that it was owned by “SpyForce.com LLC”. I ran the same test on that domain and, again, I received a “dangerous” report.

I went to my customer’s house, today, to take a look at what kind of damage had been done. Not only was the computer infected by the “Max PC Secure Spyware Detector” installation, but it was also infected with “Max PC Secure’s Registry Cleaner”, “Ascentive’s PC Scan & Sweep” and “Ascentive’s PC SpeedScan Pro”.

We emailed Max PC Secure to try to get his $50 back, but I won’t hold my breath on that.

In the future, if you’re wondering if “program x” is safe to install, please check the Web Of Trust. If you’re still unsure, contact us or any number of trustworthy tech websites, like PCTechBytes.com or BleepingComputer.com, to find out for sure.

Download WOT for Internet Explorer

Download WOT for Firefox

Oh…by the way…once you have WOT installed, giving AngeloPC.com a favorable rating would be much appreciated!