A clone of HomeAntivirus2010 has now been released. This time, the fraud tool is named PCAntispyware2010.

As usual, keep an eye out for rogues like this one!

In terms of this new rogue, the main issue at hand is that the GUI (graphical user interface) has been cloned. Still, the authors of the rogue have also changed its name from “HomeAntivirus2010” to “PCAntispyware2010”, in order to attempt to catch new potential victims. As Malware Labs has talked about before (take a look at the “Informal Naming Convention” section of our Fraud Tools and the Malware Economy white paper), we’ve researched and discovered an existing standard, or informal naming convention, among rogue applications.  Interesting to note - name combinations that contain “Spy and Spyware” have the highest prevalence. Take a look at the white paper for more information, including stats on the distribution of different variants of prefixes that are used in the names of rogues. It goes to show the length that these scammers will go to in their attempts to deceive computer users – and can also help you to know what to be on the lookout for.