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In a recent study, Google reported the rise of fake antivirus offerings on websites globally.  The report indicated that the modus operandi of scammers is to take advantage of social engineering to get malware on computers rather than exploiting holes in software.

http://www.zdnet.com/news/google-fake-antivirus-makes-up-15-percent-of-all-malware/418168

The study conducted over 13 months indicated that 15 percent of all malware originates from false pop-up warnings which is designed to obtain money from users.  This represents a five-fold increase from when Google first started the analysis.

Fake antivirus scams represent half of all malware delivered via advertisements.  This is an issue for high-profile sites that rely on their advertisers and ad networks to distribute clean ads.

Google analyzed 240 million web pages and more that 11,000 domains involved in fake antivirus distribution.  Google unveiled these domains at the Usenix Workshop of Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats in San Jose CA.

You need to be more cautious about clicking on ads on websites, even if the website is a known, legitimate website.  As previously stated, reputable websites also have ads  and code on them that are not trustworthy, either they sneak by the people approving them, or they hack their way in.  If you're going to buy anything over the Internet, esp. anti-virus software, make sure it's legitimate and respected.  Even though most people in the IT industry have their own opinions about their A/V of choice as well as its competitors, but most might get a few jabs in, but will not bash or slander a reputable A/V vendor, even if they don't think it's as good as what they use.  But anyone in the industry knows that WinAntiVirus Pro / Windows AntiVirus 2010 is not at all reputable by any means.

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