I got hit over the weekend by a particularly scummy little piece of malware called Live Security Platinum.

The way it works is that it disables your current antivirus program and most other programs on your machine, including all your browsers except Internet Explorer. In fact even on internet explorer it effectively blocks you from visiting almost every site except the one the scammers want you to go to.

What happens is the malware "appears" to run a security scan of your machine and then tells you that you have a list of (bogus) viruses and malware. It prompts you to use your credit card to buy the "Live Security Platinum" program to remove these non-existent viruses. The program does nothing except make you poorer and probably send your credit card information to some criminal organization in the Ukraine or god knows where.

It's a sophisticated scam that obviously prays on naive internet users.

To remove it I first went to my Windows "Control Panel" / "Appearance and Personalization" / "Show Hidden Files and Folders".
Check the radio button for "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
Uncheck "Hide operating system files (recommended)"
Now look in your ProgramData directory.
Sort the folders by creation date.
You should see a folder created on the day of infection that is a long list of random characters.
Look inside the folder and you should see three files including an "ico" extension file with the "Live Security Platinum" logo.
Delete those 3 files.
Then restart your computer.

You should now be able to start your Anti-virus program again.
Immediately do a full scan of your computer.
The Live Security Platinum virus also installs a Trojan virus which your true AV system
needs to find and remove right away.

That should be all there is to it.

I've seen quite a few posts recommending to download some kind of SpyWare removal tool (there is a free and paid version) but I am skeptical of whether it does any good or not. At any rate it seems unnecessary.

Just to add;

This same fake AV appears under many guises.

Windows 7 Antivirus;
Vista Antivirus Essentials
Antivirus Professional
Antivirus 2010|2011|2012 [premium]

And to cap it all ClickBank Marketplace has "Antivirus Professional" listed so people can earn commissions for you buying a fake solution for a fake product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avg $/sale $74.91

Commission Structure is
Initial $/sale: $22.56 | Avg %/sale: 75.0% | Avg Rebill Total: $52.35 | Avg %/rebill: 75.0% | Grav: 0

Wow! Seriously? one would think Clickbank doesn't have to resort to selling fake products that include a virus.

I would never ever buy something that was forced on me like that. I would just click off the site the second the so called "security" scan starts. They might look really authentic, but thats the oldest trick in the book on viruses/trojans/malware attempting to install themselves.

Plus I wouldn't pay that kind of money for an antivirus program. I don't about anyone else but I always shop and find deals. The most I've ever shelled out for av/as is $40.

I remember when I got hit by this virus last year. I wasn’t able to access my antivirus and my browser. Fortunately, a friend of mine came over and brought his laptop. So that’s what we used to find a way to remove the virus. I’m just glad that’s over.

How did you acquire yours Vintageblack? do you remember what site it came from?

I didn't know which site it came from.
One day, a message popped up that there were x number of threats on my computer. The message was from Live Security Platinum.
I was wondering why the message was from that instead of my antivirus (Microsoft Security Essentials). When I tried to scan my computer using Microsoft Security Essentials, I can't access my antivirus.
Then Live Security Platinum was prompting me to buy its program.