FTC cracks down on bogus virus alerts By John Lister
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/12/11/ftc-cracks-down-on-bogus-virus-alerts/
FTC cracks down on bogus virus alerts So-called ‘scareware’ firms which falsely claim a user’s computer has a virus to trick them into buying security software are under threat. The Federal Trade Commission has won court backing to freeze the assets of several offenders and bar them from future scams.
The judgment by the US district court in Maryland affects five individuals and two companies, ByteHosting Internet Services and Innovative Marketing. Both lived up to the latter’s name by setting themselves up as an online advertising agency which placed ads for legitimate companies on reputable websites.
The scam was that they edited the code behind the adverts to produce pop-up windows which supposedly scanned a user’s machine and, in every case, reported finding spyware. They then offered the user security products costing upwards of $39.95 under names such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus; none of these actually did anything to remove genuine viruses.
Another variation on the same scam involved supposedly finding “illegal pornography” and selling software to remove it from the computer.
The individuals are all now temporarily barred from claiming to have found a security issue on any computer and attempting to conceal their identities.
The FTC wants a permanent ban on any of the five marketing security software in this way, though there’s some question about whether that’s necessary or if ‘scareware’ tactics are inherently illegal because they are misleading.
The court has also frozen the assets of the two businesses and ordered firms hosting the domains and websites involved to block them from public access.