Browsing my webmail account on one of the biggest providers in Italy I was hit by this popup message:

The cause of the javascript popup was the banner at the top of the page, urging me to download and install the SystemDoctor software.

I’m familiar with the brand, it’s an application that claims your computer is full of errors and then asks you to buy the registered version to clean them.

To verify, I followed the link and installed the software which found 375 “severe errors” on a crystal clean Windows XP installation, including marking as “critical error” files dropped by the installer itself, perfectly legitimate registry keys etc. Asking for money to remove imaginary errors is, I would say, questionable behavior.

So the questions of the day are: “Should web service provider police their ads? Should they make sure paid banners are safe for their viewers? And will this trend of malwae writers using paid ads to distribute malcode continue?”