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FTC Kills Scareware Scam That Duped Over 1M Users

Posted by samzenpus on from the don't-let-it-happen-to-you dept.

coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission today got a court to at least temporarily halt a massive 'scareware' scheme, which falsely claimed that scans had detected viruses, spyware, and pornography on consumers' computers. According to the FTC, the scheme has tricked more than one million consumers into buying computer security products such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus. The court also froze the assets of Innovative Marketing, Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC to preserve the possibility of providing consumers with monetary redress, the FTC stated."

2 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A fool and his money... by ExploHD · · Score: 0, Redundant

    That would normally be funny, however, this program will overtake the computer to the point where the normal Window's Security Center is replaced by this program. People will then be told that they need to buy a subscription to protect their computer and it all seems to be under Microsoft, not another offshore company.

  2. (Re: FTC Kills Scareware Scam) by dougallinux · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I found it very funny when my Linux Mint system had a scamware page up in opera (internet browser) and the rest of my family belived as it said that my computer had a virus, problem was it claimed to be scanning my C: drive. LOL