Software giant Microsoft has warned about a new flavour of scareware which looks like it has been officially manufactured by Redmond.

Microsoft is fuming that its Security Essentials suite which is freely available to Windows users that have genuine software installed is being mimicked by Internet criminals. The rogue anti-malware client lists a bunch of bogus infections before asking a user to pay a fee to purchase a "full" non-trial version of Security Essentials. Of course the concept of asking you to pay for a software which is free and comes from Microsoft should make most people suspicious. Unfortunately it does not.

The fake "Security Essentials 2010" claims to unlock removal and cleaning functionality if the user will pay up. Actually filling out this information puts a user at risk of fraud (stolen credit card details) and of course, identity theft. The malware changes the users' Desktop background, alerting that "YOUR SYSTEM IS INFECTED". "System has been stopped due to a serious malfunction. Spyware activation has been detected."

"It is recommended to use spyware removal tool to prevent data loss. Do not use the computer before all spyware removed."

In other words if it did come from Redmond, Security Essentials was written by someone who has English as a second language. Which given the fact they are American and have not spoken proper English since the 18th century might be true. The malware also blocks access to a number of popular video websites, which includes Facebook, eBay, YouTube, BBC News and more. Microsoft's real Security Essentials software detects the malware as Trojan:Win32/Fakeinit. 

More here.