On Tuesday, Symantec released a report which revealed that Brazil had managed to rise to third place in the list of nations marred with "malicious activity" or spam, online scam attempts and all other types of cybercrime.

The US continued to lead the brigade with 19% of such activity over 2009, and China landed in the second space with 8% cybercrime activity rate. Brazil, the third place holder, recorded 6% of such activity in 2009.

Conficker, a malicious software program which ruled the news everywhere last April, and many sophisticated attacks on the websites of giants like Google Inc. over the months of December and January, were the most publicized and highlighted cyber events of the past year.

But fake security software still continued to be the most common and prevalent form of cybercrime. Users of PCs generally see this as a flashing notice saying that their computer os infected with virus, as has been shared by Vincent Weafer, a Symantec Vice President.

The notice often provides users with a link wherein they can download the entire software by making the required payments. The scam is highly popular because the victims end up willingly hand over their credit card numbers and other details.

"Virtually everything we see today is fake AV (anti-virus). It’s such a money-making racket", said Weafer.