Fake Pop-up Images

February 2010

A fake pop-up window looks like an ordinary pop-up, but is actually an image. Clicking anywhere on the image will activate a link, which often leads to you inadvertently downloading spyware. Fake pop-ups rely on user habit. You see a pop-up window, so you close it by clicking the X button. Because the X button is part of the image, you activate the link. To determine the validity of the popup watch the mouse pointer. If the pointer still looks like a little hand over the X button, the pop-ups a fake. If it looks like a pointer, it's a real popup.