A Russian software company is behind a security scam to diddle millions out of foreigners.

According to files posted online by a hacker, Bakasoftware makes millions per year through an elaborate scheme that relies on email spam and indirectly controlling thousands of unprotected PCs.

The software company claims to make an antivirus program strictly for English-speaking computer users. The program, Antivirus XP 2009, lodges itself on a victim’s computer and then begins generating a series of pop-up messages warning that the user’s computer is infected. If the user responds to the warnings, he or she is urged to buy a $49.95 program for disinfecting the machine.

Financial details of the operation came to light recently after information posted by a computer hacker identifying himself as Neon. Neon broke into one of the computers used by Bakasoftware for accounting.

According to the New York Times, when the Bakasoftware program starts, it checks the language of the computer user based on information contained in the Windows operating system. If it finds the personal computer of a Russian language speaker, the program shuts down.

Bakasoftware’s program has some limited antivirus capabilities, but nothing you can't get from a real av program.

Neon said that Bakasoftware’s sales scheme relies on a network of affiliates. Once an affiliate is invited to participate, it is given access to a control panel allowing it to distribute different types of mechanisms for infecting internet-connected computers. Affiliates get 58 to 90 per cent commission on sales of the software, explaining why the rogue anti-malware products are so popular among hackers and spammers. Some could earn up to $5 million a year in the scam.

Neon published a list of the ten top earners during a one-week period, with revenue ranging from $58,000 to $158,000. One affiliate who installed 154,825 versions of the software in just 10 days and managed to get $2,772 to buy the cure.

If any hacker had a botnet big enough, they could earn $5 million annually by maintaining a botnet large enough to force between 10,000 and 20,000 installations on a daily basis, Neon said,