No matter what, don’t push the red button!
I’m trolling through some old tech forum archives trying to track down the signatures of rogue malware programs when I came across this jewel from Ziff-Davis’ Neil J. Rubenking:
So, after reading that the big warning window is a fake, and that clicking the links on it will install programs that a) you do not want and b) are very hard to remove… you chose to surf to the site anyway?! That is a strange choice, unless you have powerful antispyware protection in place, but OK. Upon reaching the site you got a fake warning popup containing a very similar fake warning as is found in the box at the top of the example screenshot we showed. What specifically was surprising or confusing about this?
I’m thinking of the kid at the end of “Time Bandits” - “Mum, Dad, don’t touch it! It’s Eeeeeeevil!”. We said, basically, “Don’t touch this window - it’s Eeeeeeeevil!”. You touched it anyway, and got an Eeeeeeevil response (another fake warning). Seems quite consistent to me.
Of course, they always push the red button. Like Dee Dee on Dexter’s Labratory.