You may have heard of the Trojan known as Vundo. Hopefully, this isn’t because you’ve had to deal with it yourself! But if you don’t get the proper protection, then you may someday. Or you may suspect it’s on your computer.

One initial symptom of Vundo is often the ?blue screen of death.? This term usually refers to the blue screen you see when Windows shuts down your computer due to danger, or a massive system error. Vundo or one of the malicious programs it delivers, can replace your screensaver with a ?blue screen of death? clone!

What’s worse, it will negate the ?screensaver? tab on your desktop’s Properties dialog box.

Why is this? Because it helps scare people into buying the ?anti-spyware? offered by the popups that inevitably follow a Vundo infection.

These supposed anti-spyware programs, however, are anything but useful. They are fake programs designed to give false alarm to unsuspecting computer users. They use tricks like the ?blue screen of death,? and dropping infected files into a host computer. Then they scan and ?discover? those files, in an apparent solution to the computer owner’s problems.

Then you, the user, are prompted to buy the ?registered? version of the fake antispyware program. You’ll be told you need the full version in order to get rid of your infections. But all that will happen is that your problems will go away for a few days, only to return with annoying pop-up ads for other fake antispyware programs.