Microsoft has begun supporting the falling market share of its Internet Explorer browser with a TV campaign that highlights how easily you can fall victim to online scams and how you can avoid it: Simply download IE8.

The new TV campaign was launched last week but appears to have come to our screens in full force this weekend when Microsoft flooded virtually all major cable channels ranging from locals sports broadcasts to the Food channel with what the company euphemistically calls a “confidence” campaign. To us, it looks like a scare drive to convince people to download IE8.

The commercials show, according to Microsoft, real people in real life scenarios, who are willing to hand over very private information, literally going down to your underwear, while opening a bank account in exchange for a promise to receive $500. The commercial informs us that such “scams” happen on the Internet “all the time.”

But don’t be afraid. Help is on the way. Download IE8 and you will be safe. Did you know that IE8 blocks 3 million of such (phishing) scams every day? Wow.

There is no reference or comparison to any other browser. Not to Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and not to any older version such as IE6, which Microsoft openly considers unsafe.

The campaign, created by MDC Group’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky, is claimed to be educational, but there is no educational element in this spot, with the exception of the message that IE8 will protect its users from such scams – which may be a bit optimistic and, in fact, misleading. Ryan Gavin, senior director of IE, told AdWeek that “the campaign is meant to raise awareness about online security and show how IE8 can help protect consumers.” Scaring always raises awareness, I’ll give you that, Ryan.

But I have no idea in which part those ads show how IE8 helps to protect consumers. “Going to New York, the most street-smart city, and having people hand over their private information demonstrates how quickly our expected behavior can impact us,” Gavin said. “Using real people gives the campaign authenticity, and hopefully, will drive people to protect themselves from malware with Internet Explorer 8.”

Aha. Just one question: Ryan, are you willing to guarantee those people who download IE8 that they will never fall victim to scams or malware? Wasn’t it just this week that Microsoft pitched a massive cumulative IE security update with a total of 29 patches? Could your TV message be a tiny bit misleading? Yes, it could. No browser developer can give such a guarantee and even the users with lots of Internet smarts can fall victim to new Internet scams or malware, no matter whether they are using IE8, Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera.

Let’s call this campaign what it is: A campaign to increase IE8 browser downloads to support IE’s falling market share. It is interesting to see that Microsoft is running this campaign in the U.S. after it told us that IE’s market share is actually increasing here in the U.S. again. And, we are also told that IE8 remains the fastest growing browser version in the market today, based on point gains, according to Net Applications. On a global basis, however, we should not forget that the gains of IE8 are not enough to compensate for the combined losses of IE6 and IE7, according to Net Applications. We will see on July 1 whether the campaign will show any effect in IE8 usage share when Net Applications and StatCounter release their market share numbers.

I can’t help but saying that Microsoft’s campaign just doesn’t feel right and someone is missing the mark here. If Microsoft wanted the campaign to be educational, then Crispin Porter + Bogusky has delivered a horrible campaign; if the campaign is what Microsoft wanted, then Gavin’s explanation is dubious, at best. There is no education in this commercial. It’s a scare campaign designed to get users to download IE8. It’s as simple as that.

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