Buying viruses.

Is it just me or does it seem like catching a computer cold is not what it used to be? 

In the old days, unsuspecting users would open that email from that person they didn't know or or download that free program that looked cool and then the next thing you know they are looking at the beautiful Blue Screen of Death or their computer has slowed down to the point that it makes an old IBM XT seem fast. 

As people caught onto the evil ways of seriously bored nerds they installed better anti virus programs and got smart about what they looked at and downloaded.  Even a computer noob would have a hard time catching a virus these days as any new computer they get will come stocked with the infamous resource hog we all call Norton or better yet they might get the almost always unreliable McAffee.   

So the virus and malware programmers have had to get smart as well.  They have had to come up with different ways of infecting your computer.  But now, not only are they still able to get the viruses in, but they are making you pay them to do it.  Yes that's right, people are now buying their viruses. 

I know a lady who recently purchased a game online for $30 for her young kids.  The game is called Text Twister and she bought it and downloaded it from ArcadeTown.com.  To be safe she also purchased a cd copy of the game which arrived a couple days later.  The game was installed on one of her secondary computers so that her pre kindergarten girl, and her 1st grade boy could play the game, learn how to spell better and stay out of her hair while working.  Not long after the game was installed Avast went into it's screen saver scanner mode.  Then shortly after that the familiar sirens started screaming and the two ominous nuclear symbols popped up on screen.  It seems as though Avast found a virus in the games file folder on the C: Drive.  To be safe she moved it to the Avast chest and then got the CD out.  Before installing the game she scanned the CD with Avast and again, sirens and nuclear symbols. 

This really wasn't good, so she contacted me.  I then went to the site where she got the game and I found this:

"Sometimes a virus or spyware scanner incorrectly identifies our games as having a virus, trojan, or spyware. If this happens please update your virus scanner and the problem will typically go away. Otherwise look for and use a setting in your virus scanner that will disable the scanning on the directory where the game is installed. You could also temporarily disable your virus scanner, however we do not recommend this and if you do be certain to re-enable it after you are done so that you stay protected."

Ok, so I told her to update Avast and try again.  She did, and as it turns out she needed the latest version of the program.  After it was all updated she scanned the cd again, and again sirens and nuclear symbols.  Now I don't know about any of you, but when my Avast or other anti virus program keeps blaring whenever it scans a certain program or file, i get rid of the problem.  In this case though I didn't really know what to tell her, I mean she had just spent $30 on the game for her kids.  So I contacted ArcadeTown.com but as of yet they still have not contacted me back. 

At that point I didn't want to tell her that she had just paid for her virus but then I saw something else that made me think otherwise.  I read on the web today about HP selling flash disk drives pre infected with malware.  WTF????  HP???????  WTF?????????  See for yourself here.

So it seems now we no longer have to worry about just downloading a virus, but it seems we have to worry about buying them too.  It makes me just sick to think people are spending good money for a virus or malware.  So aside from HP and ArcadeTown, where else can somebody buy a virus?  Please comment and let us know.