Trend Micro has warned that cybercriminals are exploiting one of the company's existing products in order to part surfers with their cash.

Housecall is an online scanner provided by the company that lets you scan your machine for viruses and other types of malware.

However, the company found a spoofed version of the application when it conducted a web search for 'free online virus scan by Trend Micro'.

The fake scanner brings up messages that inform you that there is malware on your system and urge you to buy an anti-virus program to remove it.

Trend Micro warned that this trick was similar to the AntiVirus XP 2008 scam.

"This software tries to dupe victims into believing that their systems are infected with some sort of bogus malware and the prompts them to pay for a full licence of a fake anti-virus application in order to remove the fake threat," said Jonathan Leopando of Trend Micro.

The company advised that surfers go to its homepage to navigate to other areas of the website, rather than clicking on links to individual pages brought up in searches.

www.trendmicro.com

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