US Court puts a lid on Two Scareware Scams
Photo by: Paul Keleher
Last week, a US court gave out orders to yank two online companies off the internet. The action was taken on the companies, Innovative Marketing Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services LLC after the FTC filed charges against them.
FTC holds both the companies to be scams from end to end. Federal officials formally charged the companies with manipulating ad networks and website owners into carrying spurious ads and then tricking visitors from these ads into buying dubious services.
The two companies told online advertising networks and well-known websites that they were representing renowned companies. They claimed they were on contract with these companies to place their advertisements online. In reality, this was just a cover to convince them to carry some unscrupulous ads.
Visitors clicking on these ads were clandestinely taken to a scam site. Here, they were informed that the site had just now performed a security check on the user’s computer and had noticed some problems. The problems ranged from detection of viruses and Trojans to finding traces of illegal pornographic links. The user was then offered a range of dubious products to cure all of these problems.
In reality, there would be nothing wrong with the users’ computers. The scan was said to be a ruse to make users part with about $40 of their money to solve non-existent problems with their computers.
One million victims are reported to have been bilked by the two businesses. Some of the products that were allegedly sold in this manner were WinAntivirus, WinFixer, DriveCleaner, XP Antivirus, and ErrorSafe.
The court has temporarily restrained both the firms from conducting any business online. Online service providers were asked to ensure that their websites remained offline until further notice. It also issued an order to freeze their assets.
Source: FTC Press Release
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December 17th, 2008 at 7:23 am
[...] US Court puts a lid on Two Scareware Scams [...]
December 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
[...] US Court puts a lid on Two Scareware Scams
Last week, a US court gave out orders to yank two online companies off the internet. The action was taken on the companies, Innovative Marketing Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services LLC after the FTC filed charges against them [...]