Far too often, we come across websites that attempt to piggyback on the name “Lavasoft” or “Ad-Aware” in order to take advantage of you and your credit card.

We’ve recently been alerted to a site, new-official.com/adware, which charges a fee for the service they provide to consumers: offering a collection of links to free software, such as Ad-Aware 2008. Often times, these types of sites are designed to look similar to the program’s original download site in order to fool consumers into believing they are paying for the legitimate software.

New-official.com/adware (shown to the left) is no different – it carries many similarities to the Lavasoft website in order to mislead customers. While this site has now been taken offline, there are many similar sites on the Net that offer all types of popular free software.

Another tactic to be on the lookout for is sites peddling rogue software. For example, the site adaware2008.com attempts to dupe users into downloading the rogue program, AdwareBot.

What do you need to know? Keep in mind that Lavasoft is in no way connected to these websites. We continue to offer Ad-Aware 2008 Free completely free of charge for home use. Visit the Ad-Aware 2008 Free product page to see a list of our legitimate download partners. To purchase our Ad-Aware 2008 Plus or Pro versions, the best way to do so is to visit the Lavasoft online store. And remember, use caution whenever you download software or make a purchase online!

Today, we learned truly tragic news about the founder of Webroot, the company behind Spy Sweeper anti-spyware software. According to reports, the body of Steven Thomas, who had been missing in Hawaii since June 30, has now been found.

From all of us at Lavasoft, our hearts go out to Thomas’ friends and family at this time and we send our sincere condolences.

You’ve heard of our MVPs…Here at Lavasoft, we now also have MVTs!

We’d like to take a moment to give a well-deserved thank you to our Most Valuable Testers – beta testers that is. While we are truly grateful to all of our beta testers around the world who helped shape Ad-Aware 2008, we’d like to call attention to four particular testers. These four have gone above and beyond the call of beta testing to make significant contributions to our testing process with the quality of their analysis and reporting. Meet our MVTs and find out what they have to say about Ad-Aware 2008:

• Ian, an 18 year old student from the United Kingdom, is hoping to study for a Master’s Degree in chemistry at University College London this fall. He is currently taking “A” Level exams in chemistry, physics, biology and math. Outside of his school and self-proclaimed “geek” lives, he keeps tropical fish and helps out at a local scout group.

“I’ve used Ad-Aware for a long time now and jumped at the opportunity to help improve the next version of the software. I enjoyed testing the software and hope it goes on to protect many people. One of the great things about Ad-Aware is that I can just leave it to get on with its job and it will - with no input from me. A great piece of software has definitely just go better,” Ian says.

• Kyle, a 27 year old Ohio, USA resident, has been a freelance Quality Assurance Analyst for the past 9 years. He is currently enrolled in a Master’s Degree program in Information Technology with an emphasis on Security and boasts a 4.0 GPA.  Even though he was raised on a Microsoft Windows machine, he is also proficient with Mac and Linux, and is learning Unix. When he is not tinkering with computers, Kyle can be found playing his PS3 or the Wii with his family, watching movies, hiking, fishing, and even taking a nice bike ride just to escape the everyday life.

“Every time I create a new Windows machine for me or for a client, Ad-Aware is one of the first programs I install on the machine.  It keeps the OS safer and helps clean the system from unwanted software,” Kyle says.

• Gregory, who resides in Arizona, USA, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Engineering and Wharton Schools and is a US Navy veteran. His work experiences lie in the fields of software engineering for financial and medical software. For the last 10 years, he has been involved with research and software development for the advancement of technologies involving fine-motor skills research and application for identification of human movement disorders at NeuroScript LLC.

“I am glad to have participated in your beta testing, particularly since I have used and continue to use your product. If I am to use a product, I like the ability to express a voice in its function, in addition to assisting in ironing out the kinks (a software engineer’s job is never done),” Gregory says.

• Miguel is a 23-year-old student who currently lives in Portugal. One of his biggest assets is the ability to speak five different languages and understand a few others, a useful skill for an assortment of jobs. Apart from performing tasks in the IT area, Miguel has a passion for Classics, especially Roman and Greek civilizations; Ovid and Homer are among his favorite writers. He strongly believes that IT should serve as a bridge between our past and future.

“I signed up for the Ad-Aware beta test because I feel that it is important to help companies make the best possible software, and we, users, also need to play an important role in product development,” Miguel says.

Thanks for a job well done, MVTs!

Last week, we saw two legitimate sites hit by SQL injection attacks: Sony PlayStation and the Association of Tennis Professionals. SQL injection attacks are an emerging tactic that is becoming increasingly popular among hackers. There has been a recent rise in mass attacks – compromising hundreds of thousands of websites – and all signs point to the fact that we’re likely to see more to come.

To learn more about the rash of dangerous SQL injections plaguing the Web, check out this month’s “Bad Behavior” article in our company newsletter, Lavasoft News.

Softonic is giving Ad-Aware users the chance to let your voices be heard!

It’s time for the download site’s annual “Softonic Software of the Year” awards where you can vote for your favorite programs in different categories and platforms. We’re proud to announce that Ad-Aware was chosen as a finalist in this year’s competition for “Best Anti-Spyware.”

Help your favorite anti-spyware product win the race by casting your vote on Softonic’s English, German, French, or Spanish websites. (Not to mention, by voting for this year’s best software, you enter a raffle to win some cool free products from Softonic.)

Vote now – the polls are only open until July 4!

We’ve received word from the Turkish website TAMindir.com that Ad-Aware 2008 has picked up their “Editör’ün Önerisi” (Editor’s Choice) award.

Along with granting a five-star rating, TAMindir.com editors had this to say about our software:

“Ad-Aware 2008 has been chosen for the Editor’s Choice Award on our site with its new improved engine, new simple user interface, and popularity. Ad-Aware is the number one for all computer users against spyware and adware and we’re recommending this amazing tool to our visitors, also with paid professional versions, for a clean computer.”

Thanks, TAMindir.com!