V3 posted a story that Microsoft has uncovered a fresh wave of malware campaigns that block web users from surfing the internet using bogus threat alert messages

"Lately we're seeing a dropping trend in the telemetry for some of the once most-prevalent rogue [antivirus] families, such as Win32/Winwebsec, Win32/OneScan, Win32/FakeXPA, Win32/FakePAV," he said in a blog post.

"However, since the big malware ‘players' are having more trouble in taking advantage of users paying for fake security products, and are moving away from this kind of social engineering, we are seeing other players willing to fill the gap."

Chipiristeanu highlighted one of the campaigns as particularly malicious, as it uses fake antivirus malware to hamper its victims' ability to browse the internet.

  Microsoft warns of fake virus alert hitting Windows users