Can you trust Conficker clean-up advice on Twitter?

I would be cautious of trusting Twitter users who recommend you try Trend Micro to clean-up the Conficker worm.

Not because Trend Micro can't help you remove the Conficker worm (I'm sure they can), but because it could be that the Twitter users are actually making money out of getting you to click on the links. And maybe they never had a Conficker infection at all.

The following YouTube video explains more:

(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)

Ugg!

In a nutshell, lots of different Twitter users are posting identical messages recommending other Twitter users to try out Trend Micro's anti-virus product as it helped them with Conficker:

I had conficker and I didn't know! ugg! Only found it when I switched to Trend Micro

However, these links don't go directly to Trend's website but make a number of hops and skips via commission-generating webpages. In other words, this isn't the impartial advice you might imagine it to be - and perhaps they have a dishonest interest in repeating it ad nauseam.

And clearly the fact that all of these Twitter users are posting identical messages in support of Trend's product makes them even more suspicious.

I contacted Trend Micro earlier this week as I thought they should know about this.

Meanwhile, if you want a free Conficker removal tool, feel free to try ours.