The Channel Wire

January 16, 2008

A new scam is sweeping through Macs and attempting to clean house. Coinciding with the first days of MacWorld, a rogue application known as MacSweeper is popping up on Macs and soliciting users to pay for what appears to be a bogus program.

Security researchers say that this is the first time they have seen this kind of application attack the Mac platform.

"These things are commonplace on the Windows program," said Dave Marcus, security and information manager for McAfee Avert Labs. "Really their goal is to trick you to buy the whole version."

The program, which seems to be targeted toward consumers, initially notifies victims that something is awry on their Macs and subsequently attempts to trick them into paying for a cleanup. However, users soon find out that the program simply fails to deliver anything it promises once they pay for it. "It doesn't do any of the things it advertises," said Marcus.

While the program was found to mislead Mac users into paying for a program that doesn't exist, security experts say that so far it does not appear to be malicious or install malware onto users' machines without their active consent.

This particular MacSweeper application is similar to others that have affected several versions of Windows. Security experts say that users can expect to see more scams target Macs as the popularity of the platform continues to rise.

The bogus MacSweeper program was first detected in late December, but "it's getting more press right now because of MacWorld," said Marcus. So far, security researchers don't know how many users have been affected.

To protect themselves, experts advise Mac users to keep security software updated and to pay close attention to end user licensing agreements.

"In the future, be careful of programs that claim to do one thing but only if you pay a certain price," said Marcus, adding "I don't think it's doomsday for Mac users."