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Office Depot and Support.com To Pay $35 Million To Settle FTC Allegations That They Charged Users Millions in 'Fake' Malware Cleanup Fees (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the new-lows dept.

Office Depot and Support.com have coughed up $35 million after they were accused of lying to people that their PCs were infected with malware in order to charge them cleanup fees. From a report: Late Wednesday, the pair of businesses settled a lawsuit brought against them by the US Federal Trade Commission, which alleged staff at the tech duo falsely claimed software nasties were lingering on customers' computers to make a fast buck. The lawsuit, filed in southern Florida, claimed the two companies, including Office Depot subsidiary OfficeMax, from 2009 until November 2016 misrepresented the state of consumers' computers by using a sales tool designed to convince people to pay for diagnostic and repair services.

"In numerous instances throughout this time period, Defendants used the PC Health Check Program to report to Office Depot Companies customers that the scan had found or identified 'Malware Symptoms' when it had not done so," the complaint stated. "Additionally, in numerous instances, the PC Health Check Program falsely reported to consumers that the program had found 'infections' on the consumer's computer." According to the watchdog's complaint, the PC Health Check Program was incapable of finding malware. Support.com allegedly programmed the software so that whenever an Office Depot Company employee checked any one of four checkboxes describing a generic concern, like slowness, before the scan started, the scan would automatically report the detection of malware symptoms, and for a time, infections.

56 comments

  1. MANY examples of insufficient management. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    We are seeing many examples of insufficient management. (The biggest recent example is Boeing.)

    1. Re:MANY examples of insufficient management. by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      It's not really management. It's the whole modern attitude to product development. 'Get the hardware out there, we will fix any issues in software later..' For trinkets and phones this sort of works, but for planes and other life-at-risk products it doesn't work so well.

      It's more greed than anything else, corporations are gonna corporate as long as there are share holding investors that have a vote.

    2. Re: MANY examples of insufficient management. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean cheapskate buyers who opted to not purchase simple safety options? It's not Ford's fault if I buy a new car without lane departure warning, even if it's available as an option.

    3. Re: MANY examples of insufficient management. by Zmobie · · Score: 1

      Given a plane is orders of magnitude more complex than a car, not really sure your strawman is going to hold up well.

    4. Re:MANY examples of insufficient management. by Zmobie · · Score: 1

      We've seen it for a long time, these are just the most recent examples of it. I've respected many of these engineering companies for years, but truth be told their upper management is no different than the other industries' executives. I question what unscrupulous developer/person put the tool together knowing damn well it could not even detect malware. It is probably some basic as hell WCF, but anyone doing it knew how unethical their actions were. It's just like whoever developed the emissions cheat software at VW. They knew it was wrong, there was no way they didn't, and they should have stepped up and said no. I like my job too, but if they ask me to do something unethical I don't care if I get fired on the spot, not happening.

    5. Re: MANY examples of insufficient management. by viesturz7874 · · Score: 1

      Its more like your car has undersized front wheels and there is a hidden assist feature that makes it feel like regular ones. And the extra safety feature is a warning light when the assist gets confused and starts steering the opposite way.

    6. Re:MANY examples of insufficient management. by mysidia · · Score: 1

      I like my job too, but if they ask me to do something unethical I don't care if I get fired on the spot, not happening.

      You can say that for yourself, but you cannot say that for other people.

      My suggestion would be that we change the "whistle blower" laws... right now whistle blowers are merely protected for disclosing illegal activity ordered by management, or that management is aware of --- the laws should change so that a whistleblower is not merely protected but actually rewarded - A minimum fine should be due for any corporate rulebreaking, and the reward should be... I would suggest 8 to 10 times that employee's normal yearly wage, either way, their reward should be funded to be a large enough jackpot to offset any loss due to possible retaliation.

    7. Re:MANY examples of insufficient management. by q4Fry · · Score: 1

      If I understand correctly, in the United States, whistleblowers can share in the proceeds from the government's case against the company, at least in cases relating to bribery, defrauding the government, and securities-related crimes.

  2. Of course they did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Idiot computer janitors as a profit center had no other end state than this one.

  3. The Special Hell by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nevermind the 'fines' and 'bad press'. There needs to be a Special Hell for people or companies that pull shit like this.
    I have never worked for any of these companies (and thank the Universe for that small favor!) but I have like many of you of course 'helped' people I know who are not tech-savvy with computer problems. With power comes responsibility. Taking advantage of people who do not have the knowledge or ability to take care of themselves is just plain evil. I hope that one of the outcomes of this is that Office Depot and this support.com get such a bad reputation because of this that no one trusts them ever again. Probably won't happen but I can hope.

    1. Re: The Special Hell by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I'm fairly sure you can tell all of us how to fix the power steering in your car and what you have to pay attention to when welding a leak in your gas line, right? You would never use something you can't keep in good repair yourself, after all.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're going to write "nevermind", why don't you also write "nerverworked"?

    3. Re: The Special Hell by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 0

      If you're going to troll, you could at least be bothered to put some effort into it, you piece of garbage. YOU HAVE TO GO BACK: 4chan.org/b

    4. Re: The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually yes. I can fix the power steering, bleed the brake lines, adjust a carburetor, replace the spark plugs, etc. I can't weld a gas line under pressure, but my father is a licensed welder as well as dipl. Engineer, so if I ever need to, I can quickly get a reference and assemble the proper team.
      And no, I don't keep stuff around that I can't keep in good working order myself. That said I can pour and vibrate concrete, calculate and wire rebar, do water and sewage pipes, bathroom times, floor tiles, roof shingles, etc. when I don't know to do something I know enough to know where to look up the regulation or the industry standard and audit the (hired) repairman work to that standard

    5. Re: The Special Hell by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      Glad to see there's someone else like this out there, too.
      When something breaks in my house, the first thing I think is "What do I need to do to fix this?"
      It never crosses my mind to call someone to fix my dishwasher, stove, the blower on my furnace, or, as the GP said, the power steering on my car.

      It saves untold amounts of money when you know how to fix things yourself.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    6. Re: The Special Hell by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I'm fairly sure you can tell all of us how to fix the power steering in your car and what you have to pay attention to when welding a leak in your gas line, right?

      LOL, welding a leak in your gas line. Who does this? You replace the piece of pipe. If it's the municipal gas connection, the gas company is responsible for welding that up. But the 3/4" pipe into my house? Why would I weld that? It would cost more than replacing it.

      As for the power steering, do you want to know about replacing parts, or rebuilding them? Rebuilding the rack is usually a stupid idea, but the pump can often be rebuilt trivially enough.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:The Special Hell by fred911 · · Score: 1

      "Taking advantage of people who do not have the knowledge or ability to take care of themselves is just plain evil.'

        Only when there's a diagnostic misrepresentation or a fraudulent representation of the diagnostic recommending unnecessary services or product without proper disclosure. Otherwise it's how 99% of all service providers earn income.

        Likewise creating a product that is able to properly and accurately decide what installed extension, BHO, executable, or what have you snippet of code or script, isn't malevolent is significantly more costly than a checkbox that says "My I7 computer now runs like a 386dx40 running Win98". And as fraudulent as that checkbox is, I'd venture to say 90% of the time it's checked, Joe Sixpack has granted or installed code to execute processes he really didn't want or need, that would be easily resolved by a reinstall of whatever flavor Windows the user has installed.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    8. Re: The Special Hell by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      ..okay, but there are plenty of people in the world, professional people, who do not have technical ability when it comes to computers, but they can use them, they just can't diagnose or repair them themselves; they must take it to someone who does know what they're doing. Even mom-and-pop at home with a home computer have a right to not be swindled by unscrupulous organizations. Or do you think everyone has to have the equivalent of a computer science degree before they're allowed to own a computer? Get real.

    9. Re:The Special Hell by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Hey, I know, I'll write a small Python script that I'll run that throws up all sorts of bullshit malware warnings, then I'll 'fix' it for them and make big money!

      This is okay with you somehow? Or do you just not understand what's going on here? They swindled people, conned them, charged them for unnecessary services based on faked test results.

    10. Re: The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But the 3/4" pipe into my house? Why would I weld that? It would cost more than replacing it.

      Written by someone who obviously does not know how to weld. Total cost of the welding itself, the electricity (or gas) and a welding rod.

    11. Re: The Special Hell by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 1

      Nowhere did I say that anybody shouldn't use a computer unless they knew how to fix it.
      Nowhere did I say that people who don't know how to fix something deserve to be swindled by unscrupulous dirtbags.

      I realize that was stated earlier in the thread, but I wasn't responding to that. I was simply making an aside comment about someone else who seems to be capable of fixing any piece of equipment that they may own or use.
      That kind of expertise is incredibly rare in today's world, enough that sometimes I think I'm the only ones are myself, my dad, and my brother.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    12. Re:The Special Hell by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 1

      I highly agree. My grandfather, when he was alive, had limited computer experience, but liked to get online to check scores, make PrintShop banners, etc. He lived about an hour from me and I helped him as much as I could, but he'd take his computer sometimes to nearby Big Box stores 5 minutes away for help when I couldn't. The fact some greedy corporation would prey on what I'd assume is a largely older demographic just looking for help with their PCs boils my blood. It's no better than a shitty mechanic forcing unneeded repairs on you. If your business model is to fuck over the elderly, I can only hope death is slow and painful.

    13. Re: The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm fairly sure you can tell all of us how to fix the power steering in your car and what you have to pay attention to when welding a leak in your gas line, right?

      LOL, welding a leak in your gas line. Who does this? You replace the piece of pipe. If it's the municipal gas connection, the gas company is responsible for welding that up. But the 3/4" pipe into my house? Why would I weld that? It would cost more than replacing it.

      As for the power steering, do you want to know about replacing parts, or rebuilding them? Rebuilding the rack is usually a stupid idea, but the pump can often be rebuilt trivially enough.

      Pump? Are you still using 20th century hydraulic technology for your power steering? My cars have had electric power steering since 2003.

    14. Re: The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Welding a residential gas line is not to code just about anywhere, moron. They're threaded and doped for a reason you fucking idiot. Welding would only make a crack/corrosion inroad. You know nothing about this.

      Total cost of your education : 0$

    15. Re: The Special Hell by Zmobie · · Score: 1

      While I subscribe to a lot of that school of thought (i.e. I love learning to work on stuff and being able to do things myself) there are two flaws. One, time. I know how to do a whole lot of stuff, but the time it takes me to do it can often be better spent elsewhere. I know how to mow my yard just fine for instance, but it is nothing more than a chore in my eyes hence why I pay someone to do that for me. Another example is I have firesticks throughout my house with, we will say special software, loaded onto them. I can easily do that work myself if I were so inclined, but I paid a friend to do it for me because he already had everything set up to do it quickly and cheaply. It is absolute insanity to try and do all of that work yourself because then you never have time for anything EXCEPT work.

      Two, the entire point of our economy currently is specialization and selling services/products that are supposed to be better than what a person gets on their own/at home. I can do pretty good carpentry work, and do on the regular because it saves me money in the long run. I actually enjoy cooking a lot, and can make some fairly superb meals (or at least I'm told). That does not mean that I will produce the quality of work that Nick Offerman or Gordon Ramsay can do in their respective fields. Sometimes, it makes more sense to have someone else do it who is more highly skilled than you are at that job.

      Not to mention, if I am not planning to do something repeatedly and don't just have an interest in learning it, it would save time and probably money to just pay for it from a professional. For instance, I can work on my own car and do from time to time if the fixes or maintenance is not overly time consuming (thermostat replacement, air filter changes, etc.). However, I do not own many of the more advanced automotive specific tools that would cost a lot of money and time to learn so certain repairs like replacing my catalytic converter I took to my trusted mechanic.

      Same principle applies here, many of these people might even be able to figure out how to work on their own computer (Google/DuckDuckGo is quite valuable), but they don't have the time to learn something they are not going to do on the regular. Even those that do know how, they may not have the tools to do so effectively/legally and it is perfectly reasonable that they expect an entity such as Office Depot could provide at least basic service and not be essentially running a large scale phone scam.

    16. Re: The Special Hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Original AC here. I may as well pay other people to do things, but I need to be able to audit their work. If it is a regulated industry I will accept a standard checklist from a certified and calibrated test equipment/procedure. Especially when it is something that can cause real harm, financial or bodily. And a computer is just that. It can cause harm. And no, there is no industry standard or any licensing requirement to anyone who works for Office Depot or support.com, hence it is insanity to expect that any of their work is up to any established standard or verification procedure. And since that is the case, it is beyond me why someone would trust anything in this state of affairs. You either validate/audit yourself or get regulated/licensed paperwork - otherwise it's a gamble

    17. Re: The Special Hell by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      That's like saying someone who can't adequately determine who is committing fraud that they should not be allowed to use money. Computers are a fact of life, and everyone is going to use them whether or not they can detect who is a scammer. A crime is a crime, even if the victim is more gullible than average.

      Since scams like that have affected my mother, resulting in financial loss and time consuming fixes, I would not mind seeing very serious punishments meted out even to these mainstream companies who commit fraud, including jail time.

    18. Re: The Special Hell by sjames · · Score: 1

      So, how many complete engine rebuilds have you done? Ever built a house?

      How many chips have you fabbed? Did you cut and polish the wafer yourself? Did you cut your own car keys? Did you sew your clothes and cobble your shoes?

    19. Re: The Special Hell by sjames · · Score: 1

      When you do your own appendectomy, we want pictures.

      BTW, what are you going to kill and butcher for your dinner tonight?

    20. Re: The Special Hell by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Pump? Are you still using 20th century hydraulic technology for your power steering? My cars have had electric power steering since 2003.

      My car is from 1982, and depends on zero computers to function. The closest thing it needs to function, and even then only to start, is the glow plug timer - which could reasonably be replaced by a manual switch.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Re:Microsoft? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    What OS doesn't allow me to run software that goes "uh-oh, the sky is falling, you better cough up really mucho dineros to my maker to make it stay afloat!"?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Awesome! by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How much of that money goes to the people who have been conned to recover their losses?

    Well?

    How much?

    Oh, right, they're not corporations...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Awesome! by Ksevio · · Score: 3, Interesting

      To settle the charges, Office Depot has agreed to pay $25m and Support.com will pay $10m. The money will be refunded to affected customers, the FTC says.

      I guess all of it by the looks of things

    2. Re:Awesome! by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Want to bet that to be eligible you have to jump through all sorts of hoops just to make sure that claiming the money costs more than you'll get?

      I'm sorry if I come across jaded, but it's been far too many times already.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Awesome! by sconeu · · Score: 2

      And it will come as an Office Depot gift card.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    4. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When was the last time anyone had to jump through serious hoops to retrieve their claim? I got $65 from Nvidia and all I did was send in my serial number (something about the GTX 9XX cards IIRC). All other settlements I've only had to send in my signature. Chances are the defendants will need to present records of all customers who purchased this service, and that will be used to send notices of eligibility.

    5. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the old Qualcomm was sued for deceiving shareholders, I got like $7.00 back as a reward. Wasn't even worth that much to fill out all the paperwork necessary to claim it.

  6. The wirus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You have the wirus! (runs netstat) See the connection? All hackers in your computer! (runs syskey) All we need is $400 3 years protection!

  7. Office Depot and Boeing have damaged reputations. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    "It's more greed than anything else..."

    "Greed" is poor management. You gave examples that are due to insufficient management.

  8. Re: Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what about the lady who invented electricity

  9. What they really need is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    --fast-mode=true

  10. Re:Office Depot and Boeing have damaged reputation by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    Yes, but who hires these insufficient managers (on purpose)? Greedy shareholders.

  11. Same with Car Dealerships by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They offer free car inspections and somehow always find something that needs replacing.

  12. The Theranos of Software by Kevoco · · Score: 1

    Just pretend to detect things - lie and take their money

  13. Re: Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She lived on the underside of the (flat) earth, where toilets spin CCW. Alternating direct currents can't cross the streams.

    There. Now we've both contributed diddly to the advancement of the human race.

  14. Re:Microsoft? by Zmobie · · Score: 2

    Yes, we should also demand they pay for all of the malware they the allowed to infect their system right (although apparently not in these instances!)? The OS vendor doesn't control what is written for their system outside of, here is the system APIs, do what you will. Apple and Linux can have the same things done to them. Anyone running Linux would likely say, 'eh, if true I'll fix it myself.' and Apple users are already getting scammed by the markup they pay for that hardware...

  15. Re:Microsoft? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

    If they've "settled" then they obviously made a lot more than 35 million.

    I bet the people behind it still made money when they should really be stripped of assets and pilloried in a public place.

    --
    No sig today...
  16. didnt GeekSquad get in trouble too by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    for doing just about the same thing?

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re: didnt GeekSquad get in trouble too by mprindle · · Score: 1

      Naaa, they just work for the FBI https://www.usatoday.com/story...

  17. Re:Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they've "settled" then they obviously made a lot more than 35 million.

    Of fucking course they did. And they'll do it again.

    I bet the people behind it still made money when they should really be stripped of assets and pilloried in a public place.

    We keep saying that shit after every incident like this, and yet it will never happen.

  18. Re:Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why isn't M$ paying a fine here?
    Isn't it their OS that allowed this in the first place.

    Charging Microsoft for Office Depot using Windows to carry out a crime would be like charging Ford because robbers escaped using one of their cars.

  19. Macs by doginthewoods · · Score: 1

    I had a friend call me about that crap. She took her Macbook pro there and they "ran" that same software on it and said her Mac was infected. Instead of giving it to them, she brought it to me and had me check - of course it wasn't infected and there is no way Sierra would run a PC scan program for Windows. Scam artists to the hilt..

    --
    Republican leadership = Idiocracy
  20. Re:Office Depot and Boeing have damaged reputation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Easy solution: allow shareholders to be held liable for the actions of the corporation. Stuf flike tis will get cleaned up real quick.

    Captha: "profts"

  21. support.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i worked for support.com for a period, they of course have the typical setup where even as a tech you are pressured to try to sell people stupid extraneous bullshit like that "health check" ... it felt too gross trying to sell people stupid shit like that so i never bothered, id rather just get fired if it became some kind of huge issue. it felt gross even if the program itself was semi "legit." wouldnt have even guessed it was programmed to be total bullshit. support.com seemed like a semi legitimate operation, at least the stuff i was doing. this of course doesnt really surprise me though still.