It didn’t take long, and was always inevitable but numerous scammers and con artists are out to make a quick buck by advertising extended support and compatibility solutions for Windows XP machines. Such adverts have started to appear on you-tube and websites.
Among the range of applications that are being pushed are “Media Centre” keygen tools designed to harm the performance of computers.
Christopher Boyd who is a Malware Intelligence Analyst at Malwarebytes and former Director of Research at FaceTime Security Labs and threat researcher at GFI Software believes that keygens should be avoided altogether as you never really know what you are downloading.
Boyd stated, “Keygens are something you should really avoid, as more often than not you never know quite what you’ll end up with. As for XP themed ‘setup files’, those links too us to the usual selection of surveys and ringtone offers.”
Boyd added “Take care with the last minute surge of XP themed downloads and offers – whether on social networks, forums or video sharing sites, a lot of what you’re going to see over the coming will probably not do you any favours. XP may be dead and gone in terms of updates, but that doesn’t mean pitfalls booby trap have followed suit.”
As Windows XP is no longer officially supported by Microsoft, no operating system upgrades will be released and therefore leaves the machine highly vulnerable. Virus warnings are still available but little can be done to protect the machine.
If you persist on using Windows XP rather than upgrading to a newer and supported version, it is advisable to be very careful with what you download. It is inevitable that more and more adverts claiming to offer extended support and compatibility solutions will start to appear in an attempt to fool people. Do not fall for these adverts and if you feel that you need to use a supported platform, upgrade your operating system to a newer version. This will give you a much better chance to ensure that your data remains safe and out of the hands of devious scammers and con artists.
