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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)
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.
"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.
Why isn't M$ paying a fine here?
Isn't it their OS that allowed this in the first place.
Does Apple and/or Linux have similar scams pulled on them?
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
We are seeing many examples of insufficient management. (The biggest recent example is Boeing.)
Idiot computer janitors as a profit center had no other end state than this one.
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.
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.
You have the wirus! (runs netstat) See the connection? All hackers in your computer! (runs syskey) All we need is $400 3 years protection!
"It's more greed than anything else..."
"Greed" is poor management. You gave examples that are due to insufficient management.
--fast-mode=true
Yes, but who hires these insufficient managers (on purpose)? Greedy shareholders.
They offer free car inspections and somehow always find something that needs replacing.
Just pretend to detect things - lie and take their money
for doing just about the same thing?
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
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
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"
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.