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Interesting piece of news in the Washington post: Microsoft Corp. and the state of Washington this week filed lawsuits against a slew of "scareware" vendors who use fake security alerts to frighten consumers into paying for worthless computer software.

Quote from Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna: "We won't tolerate the use of alarmist warnings or deceptive 'free scans' to trick consumers into buying software to fix a problem that doesn't even exist. We've repeatedly proven that Internet companies that prey on consumers' anxieties are within our reach."

The lawsuits were filed under Washington's Computer Spyware Act, which punishes individuals who prey on user concerns regarding spyware or other threats. Specifically, the law makes it illegal to misrepresent the extent to which software is required for computer security or privacy, and it provides actual damages or statutory damages of $100,000 per violation, whichever is greater.

Web of Trust is delighted to see Microsoft to take an active role in the fight against Internet scams. The recent Web of Trust video dealt with the same problem. Read the entire story at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/microsoft_washingto...

Thanks to all those who entered our WOT Million Download Contest. Our judges are in the process of reviewing the entries and making a decision. We will announce the winner of the iPod touch and the Lucky Draw winner of the iPod nano no later than October 10.

Our beloved service provider apparently thought it's been too long since they last were down and decided to do some network maintenance tonight, which resulted in 48 minutes of downtime. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

There is an epidemic of fake anti-malware software on the Internet. Marketed under hundreds of different names, such as VirusRemover 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009, this type of rogue software scares users by giving false alarms and then tries to deceive them into paying for removal of non-existing malware.

The new WOT video shows what happens when a legitimate site gets infected and redirected to one of these bogus anti-malware scams. This video is part of a new series  WOT is producing to show you online scams and malware threats in action.

Watch the fake anti-malware video now.

WOT is fortunate to have experienced volunteer reviewers working together with us to make the Internet safer for everyone. These dedicated people use their time and lots of effort to submit site ratings, many for untrustworthy sites that could cause harm and annoyance to computer users.

In order to aid these volunteers, we have added a new mass rating tool especially designed for multiple submissions with matching ratings and comments. The tool, called "Mass rating" is located in Gold and Platinum level user's Profile pages.

Thanks to Lordpake for the original suggestion of a mass submission tool! We look forward to receiving your feedback.