Russian scammers are preying on naive Internet users and making a pretty penny on pop-up antivirus ads.

According to U.S. security researchers from SecureWorks, the scam is relatively simple. Users get a pop-up alerting them their computer is infected and that they can rid themselves of the virus by buying a $49 antivirus software package called Antivirus XP 2008 or Antivirus XP 2009.

Thanks to the sheer amount of suckers online, the Russian outfit is managing to squeeze out around $150,000 a week using this rather lame scam.

Joe Stewart, Director of Malware Research at SecureWorks, claims hackers are turning away from classic botnet credit card theft and focusing on selling fake AV software instead.

The fake AV software goes to great lengths to convince users their machine is indeed infected. It warns them of having hundreds of infections, changes the wallpaper and screensaver in order to fake blue screens of death.

More here.