The actor in the television ad had a sincere delivery, no doubt polished from years of hawking aluminum awnings and pills for indigestion on TV.
Computer viruses, he said -- in tones suitable for proclaiming the start of a world war -- can "permanently damage" your computer. He was, as you might guess, selling a product that claimed to stop that carnage.
The thought of permanent damage to a PC spawned visions in my head of viruses munching through the metal of a hard disk, happily eating away at the chips and circuit boards, leaving only dust behind. Heck, I thought, this isn't just an advertisement, it's big news if true.
Of course, it isn't true. Computer viruses are nasty critters. But at their worst, the damage they can do is confined to destroying data, not permanently damaging the computer itself.
Technology products lend themselves to wild claims since the inner workings of computers remain a mystery to most people. So it's easy to prey on fear and uncertainty. After all, we know that there are real dangers out there -- viruses, adware, spyware that truly can create ugly messes. So fear tactics are effective when it comes to selling a cure.
Today we'll talk about ways to avoid falling victim to these scare tactics. It's a real problem based on what I hear from readers. That TV ad -- while annoying and technically wrong -- is just a mild example of how scare tactics are used to sell technology products.
The web of deceit
I'll bet you've come across more than one website that offers -- at no cost to you -- to check your computer for viruses or adware. Just click a button on the site and counters instantly start counting the problems that the website finds.
If you watch your screen while all this is being done it can be truly horrifying. Literally hundreds of problems are found by the program. Lord a mercy, there is a real rat's nest inside your computer, according to the website.
You shouldn't be surprised, then, that the nice folks at that site have a solution to all the problems it finds. Just buy their software or pay to use their online service and your computer can be cured.
Here's the trouble. With the best of these websites, many of the problems found don't really exist. And the product that is being sold to fix things often is inferior to legitimate software -- free or commercial.
Like I said, that's what happens at the best of these sites. The very worst ones pump adware and malware into your machine instead of removing it. The idea here is to inject cruddy little programs into your PC that trigger pop-up ads and other annoyances to nag at you until you purchase the scam software.
My advice? Stay away from any site that offers online checkups. While there are a few legitimate sites out there, most are dangerous. Since both the good and the bad ones can seem equally sincere and equally slick, it's best to stay away from all of them. If you hit a site that offers to check your PC online, don't click any of the on-screen buttons -- even the one used to decline the offer. Instead, close your browser.
Then pat yourself on the back for leaving so fast. Unlike the scam website, you really have done something to protect your computer.
Registry errors
There's software -- both from web services and commercial programs at the store -- that also use scare tactics when it comes to Windows Registry problems. The Registry is an important and fairly complicated beast. It keeps track of the hardware and software on your computer.
Most of us wouldn't know whether some new glitch with a computer is a registry problem or not. All we know is that the machine isn't working right. But there is a very human tendency to give the problem a name. Both viruses and registry problems are handy scapegoats. So both often get blamed falsely.
Software that claims to fix registry problems takes advantage of all that. When the program runs it will -- I guarantee you -- find hundreds of problems. In my long life I've yet to see one of these programs check a computer, even one that is brand new and right out of the box, without finding lots of problems. That's by design to reinforce the idea that the program is all that stands between your computer and disaster.
It's bad enough that these registry-fixing products find errors that aren't there. But the worst of these products then try to "fix" the problems that aren't there. That kind of crazed fixing can turn a perfectly fine computer into a swamp of horrors.
Stay away from these products, especially those that, once installed, permanently monitor the computer and promise to spot problems and fix them as they appear.
The only time a registry-repair product makes any sense is when you know for a fact that the problem you are experiencing comes from a registry error instead of any one of dozens of other possible causes. And if you're that good at diagnosing computer errors, then you're probably qualified to fix the registry error manually.
Common-sense protection
Just as a prudent person knows to beware when a claim sounds too good to be true, it's also smart to be extra cautious when a claim sounds too bad to be true. If you are sitting in front of a computer that's working just fine and are told by some website that it's in terrible shape, then let the alarm bells ring loudly.
Instead, take sensible precautions so that you'll have the peace of mind that lets you ignore doom and gloom websites. Get and use effective anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.
There's no doubt that there are legitimate threats to your computer out there. But some of the worst of those threats come from slick-talking folks who are more interested in eliminating the cash from your wallet than the viruses in your computer.
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