Deceptive Campaign Puts Spyware Vendors Under Charges

The sellers of the "Spyware Slayer" anti-spyware program who were accused of violating 'Washington State spyware and Consumer Protection' laws have accepted to pay $300,000 as fines to settle the charge. 'Washington State Assistant Secretary General' Katherine Tassi said that both the charges against the vendor i.e., breach of spyware and consumer protection laws were filed on November 29, 2006 in Seattle's 'King County Superior court'.

According to Tassi, the settlement named two companies, both under the control of the same owners. These were 'High Falls Media LLC' of Hilton, New York and 'Roc Telecommunications LLC' of Rochester, New York. Some other defendants were the company associates 'Thomas Totora', 'Mark Libutti' and 'Brian Einhaus', all based in New York. The freepcscan.com Website that sells the 'Spyware Slayer' was not working on November 29, 2006.

Tassi said that 'High Falls' campaigned 'Spyware Slayer' with fake pop-up ads that said users' computers could be infected with spyware. If the victim tried to exit from the site, another pop-up warned saying that leaving the site could damage the PC by harmful worms, viruses, adware, spyware, and other malware.

Katherine informed that that last week, in another similar incident, Washington attorney general announced a settlement with a person in New York who used pop-up ads that looked like Internet Explorer alerts. He was promoting the "QuikShield Security" program.

Tassi said such ads were confusing consumers into believing that there was spyware on their machines. They received pop-ups that warned of possibly 99% detection of spyware on their computers. But they had done nothing to detect them.

As per Tassi, 'Roc Telecommunications' ran several 'music download' sites, including '24/7 Downloads', 'Free Download Club', and 'MP3s Unlimited', which also marketed items deceptively.

The defendants have not admitted their fault. By the agreement, the entire $300,000 fine will be suspended for the defendants if they comply with the terms of the agreement. Of that, they must pay $25,000 while the remaining amount would be pending as an incentive to comply by the agreement terms. They have to also pay $30,000 in legal fees and refund money to buyers of their products.

Related article: Deceptive Grum Worm Lies on IE7 Beta Download

» SPAMfighter News - 12/4/2006