Miscreants have developed a scareware package that mimics Windows' infamous Blue Screen of Death.

Prospective marks are presented with a seemingly crashed system, along with a text warning that they need to buy "security software" to clean up their systems. But the SystemSecurity rogue package on offer has no utility other than scamming people out of their money.

Variants of SystemSecurity have been around since at least February 2009. However, the Blue Screen of Death trick is a new social engineering innovation, only spotted in variants of the attack last week by anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software.

SystemSecurity usually makes its way onto compromised Windows PCs via fake video codec installations.

Users normally install the bogus code (actually a Trojan horse malware) after following links in spam emails ostensibly inviting them to view video clips. ®

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