Symantec has published one of those rare things - a report that contains an actual surprise. It seems some 4 million people have fallen for Scareware in the last 12 months.

I'm stunned.

Not because people are installing fake antivirus systems. That's a shame but in some ways it's inevitable; people on their own will fall for scams. No, what alarms me is that the IT community (and if we include journalists and bloggers that's all of us) are doing so little to dissuade them.

It wouldn't take much. An email sent to all remote workers reminding them that not only should they not install pirated software onto their systems, not only is clicking a link in an email from someone they don't know and filling bank details in after that a really, really bad idea, but if someone approaches you with AV software it's probably fake. Coming from someone they trust, like an employer, it could transform the way scams succeed on the Internet.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a mail telling me my ISP is going to close my account if I don't log on and confirm all of my passwords...