DO NOT INSTALL FAKE SECURITY SOFTWARE OR ANTIVIRUS
Some cyber criminals are earning more than £750,000 each year from the scams, which see computer owners tricked in to downloading and installing fake antivirus software on to their machines, believing they're protecting their PC from hackers.
In fact, the downloaded software often provides cyber criminals with a "back door" into the machine, which they can access remotely, while the transaction process itself means that a computer user has unwittingly shared their credit card details with fraudsters.
Security experts estimate that around 40 million people worldwide have fallen victim to these scams in the last year. The firm has identified more than 250 versions of this software, known as "scareware".
