FTC Shuts Down Fraudulent Antispyware Company

spewey writes "The Federal Trade Commission has shut down MaxTheater, Inc., alleging the company participated in fraudulent practices with its Spyware Assassin site, which purportedly scanned user machines for spyware and reported infections, even though no scan was done and in most cases, the user machine was clean. The site then offered the user a $30 product to remove the spyware, which the commission reports 'didn't do a thing.'"

Comments

Interesting to note...

[yuriismaster]

FTA:

"[MaxTheatre's Media] represent that they have "scanned" or otherwise examined the consumer's computer and have detected that spyware already resides on it."

I smell precedence!

Almost every single pop-up ad proclaims to have found spyware on my machine, and not all of them are SpywareAssassin. Can we use this to take down other phony antispyware companies?

Re:Interesting to note...

[TheSpoom]

Hmm... Taking this a step further, wouldn't this also apply to those banner ads that look like a Windows dialog box saying that "viruses / spyware / adware / slowness / ... have been found on your machine, click here to remove / speed up"?

Re:Interesting to note...

[ornil]

Almost every single pop-up ad proclaims to have found spyware on my machine

Look at them carefully. Most of them say something like, "Your machine may be infected by spyware". Or even "is likely to". Which is perfectly true, given the statistics for this sort of thing.

Re:I'm Confused, Tell Me what to Think

[Tyler Eaves]

You're confused. The FTC is probably one of the most useful and generally non-sucky government agencies. It's like the various state attorney generals offices on a larger scale. Bascailly all they do is shut down scams and the like. You're thinking of the evil that is the F*C*C. No relation, other than both being government agencies.

"Shut down" is not enough

[sdo1]

There needs to be SEVERE penalties to discourage others from picking up where this left off. I vote for jail time for the company executives AND those developers who knew exactly what they were doing (or in this case, weren't doing).

The risk/reward ratio is still tilting too far toward reward for those who would defraud others using the internet.

-S

Re:"Shut down" is not enough

[JNighthawk]

Jail time for writing software. Jail time for falsely marketing software. Jail time for downloading software. Jail time for cracking software.

Jail time is *never* the answer here. It's ridiculous to send someone to jail for a long time for selling snake oil. Fine them, ok. Jail them for a few months, ok. 10 years for false advertising? 10 years for cracking copy protection? They're both ridiculous.

Re:"Shut down" is not enough

[anagama]

The jail time would not be for writing software. That would be silly. However, FRAUD does warrant jail time. The method is mere detail and ultimately unimportant.

Great news!

[Phidoux]

Hopefully this will have a positive affect for those of us who develop free software but have to constantly deal with the paranoia of malware and spyware.

So why can't the FTC go after...

[jasonmicron]

CoolWebSearch / Adzilla / Look2Me / Miraclesearch?

Personally I see this as doing really nothing for (or against) spyware.

Re:Down

[TheSpoom]

I bet they change their name and resurface.

Fallback...

[jemenake]

I guess it's back to the automotive repair buisiness for *those* guys.

Honestly, when I read this, I had flashbacks to all of those TV news investigative reports of mechanics, exterminators, plumbers, etc. who climb under/behind your car/sink/house and come back with "evidence" of a problem that you need to pay them $$$ to fix.

So... back to the auto shops with the bums! That's what I say! :)

We need a new software category

[mabu]

I'd call it "moronware". It's designed to troll for idiot users who believe everything they see and fall for stupid schemes. We can lump the Nigerians into this category too, with their stupid cashier's check and phony inheiritence schemes.

I've said before, I really have less of a problem with these types of unscrupulous operations. They're like financial darwinism, and anyone stupid enough to fall for them deserves to be separated from their money.

Ironically, there are lots of other schemes that defraud the populace that are based on deception that are protected by the government. I look at this crackdown as the government protecting idiots from small-time operators so that big corporations can continue to prey on them.

Wake me up when the FTC starts cracking down on the overwhelming deceptive ad practices of all the major U.S. corporations.

Re:We need a new software category

[jcocomo]

Yes, yes, little old ladies who don't understand technology deserve to be fleeced out of their savings.

Civilized societies attempt to protect the weak from the unscrupulous. The fact that a person, for whatever reason, is too weak in comprehension of the way computers work to protect him or her self from a scam like this does not make that person a "moron." It simply means that person doesn't understand how computers work.

If you wish to invoke Darwinism, remember that that means survival of the fittest, lex talonis. Otherwise, consider yourself lucky that you live in a society where the weak are not allowed to prey on the strong, because we are all weak at some times and in some ways, and the ultimate implication of any sort of social Darwinism, financial or otherwise, is that if I am stronger than you I can overpower you and take from you what I want.

Furthermore, the deceptive advertizing practices of many U.S. corporations do not bear on the fact that this was an outright scam which preyed upon people who didn't know any better.

Outrageous claims

[v1]

How could even a huckster be so foolish as to make such outrageous, "100%" guarantees? From their (cached) web page:

Not only will it scan your entire system and remove all spyware programs and files...

... which will locate any and all spyware currently residing on your system.

Once SpywareAssassin is installed, your computer is completely guarded against spyware!

...will ensure no spyware is installed without your knowledge.

twits. But then again it's handy that criminals are stupid by default, it makes them easier to catch.

Re:Government interferes with business yet again

[ocbwilg]

If someone wants to buy a "spirit healing rock" from me, why shouldn't he be able to? If he's dumb enough to buy it, well, what do they say about a fool and his money?

There's a difference between making vague, general, or unproveable claims (one way or another) and outright fraud. A "spirit healing rock" can't be tested to prove what it actually does. You could advertise the rock as "using mystical powers to make you feel better" and probably get away with it. But the moment you slap on a claim that is demonstrably false like "this rock uses mystical powers to cure cancer" then you are committing fraud and will likely get busted.

And while it's awfully popular right now to complain about "government interfering with business", I think that most people realize that a certain amount of "interference" (Republican-speak for "oversight") is desirable to protect the populace from criminaly fraudulent behavior. I don't recall anybody complaining about government interfering with business in cases like Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Healthsouth, Global Crossing, etc. Neither do I recall much complaining when the government bailed out the airlines after 9/11 to keep them in business.

Re:The Libertarian Response

[rokzy]

are you taking the piss? I guess so. the problem with Americans (my assumption is you are) is that when you think "no one could the THAT stupid" you often turn out to be wrong.