MacSweeper's Bogus, Say Security Researchers

Internet security firm F-Secure has a new warning for Mac users about a new cleaning tool called MacSweeper, reports CNET's News Blog.

The application, MacSweeper, purports to clean a user's Mac, but in reality will "always" claim to find something wrong with a user's system and seek payment to remove the unwanted file or spyware, security researcher F-Secure noted in a blog posting Tuesday.

"It's a scam...when you visit the MacSweeper Web site with a PC and click on "Scan", it will tell you that you have security vulnerabilities in folders that only exist on a Mac like system_root/home. Fake? Oh yeah," according to F-Secure.

More suspiciously, F-Secure notes that MacSweeper's corporate description was cut and pasted from Symantec's Web site, the Internet security giant.

After the application purportedly finds something askew with the system, users have the option of clicking the "remove"  button, which then prompts the user to fork over $39.99 for a lifetime subscription.

Patrik Runald, an F-Secure security response manager, says he wouldn't recommend anyone handing over their credit card information because "[w]hile you might get a keycode, there's no telling what they will use your credit card details for in the future."