According to the Symantec Rogue Security Software Report, the fake security program distribution industry's top ten sales affiliates had supposedly earned an average of twenty-three thousand dollars every week during a one-year period. More to the point, there are malware websites that actually use perfectly legal online payment processors that handle credit card transactions for their criminal goods, while others even send their targets an email that serves as a receipt or proof of purchase for their products as well (i.e., the message features a customer service number and serial number) just to appear legitimate.

This practice is reminiscent of the affiliate marketing programs that many of the popular online retailers utilize. These partner promotions reward members for every visitor that's sent to their website via marketing efforts. The model mentioned above allows the associates of these rogue software scammers to earn one cent to fifty-five cents for every successful installation, which encourages them to promote the counterfeit software even more regardless of whether or not they're aware of just who they're supporting.

All the same, in order to protect oneself against these remorseless Internet ne'er-do-wells that take advantage of the malware epidemic in every possible and devious way, Symantec recommends the following tips:

• Purchase proven, reputable brands and software when trying to shield yourself against the daily hazards of modern-day computing. Companies and individual users should invest in products that are usually sold in well-established brick-and-mortar or online stores.

• Do not follow links from unsolicited emails, because they more often than not lead to spoofed or dangerous sites. You should instead manually type the URLs of legitimate and certified websites when surfing the worldwide web.

• Never run, open, or even view message attachments unless you know where the file came from. You should also be wary of any emails that don't directly address your email address.

As the saying goes, the end does not justify the means. In this case, the reverse is also true: legitimate means does not justify a crooked end either. At any rate, cyber terrorists are earning a lot of money from their terrifyingly ingenious scheme of tricking users into downloading malware that masquerades as security software. The highly methodical and well-thought-out pay-for-performance business model that they've adopted to trick users into buying and installing their bogus wares is quite a nefarious yet lucrative scheme indeed.