[LINK] Scareware seller fined $163milUSD

[Frank O'Connor]

I like to cause a few heart attacks when these clowns ring ... so I do the following:

"Hello, it's Michael from Help for Windows here ...."
"Hi Michael ... just hang on a moment will you? Harry ... I've got one here. The trace says he's calling through North Sydney ... looks like the Alfred St Exchange. Look, get Investigations to run a spike back to determine the physical location ... what's that you say ... India? OK have the Indian authorities ....
<Click>

Works every time ...
---
On 03/10/2012, at 11:24 AM, Jan Whitaker <jwhit at janwhitaker.com> wrote:

> [We have this going on here -- a friend got stung, I get the calls, 
> it's epidemic in Australia. I wonder if the ACCC or whatever 
> regulator there is here will take them on. There appears to be some 
> money in it.......]
> 
> http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/us-orders-163-million-fine-for-scareware-20121003-26yah.html
> 
> A US federal court has ordered a $US163 million ($159 million) fine 
> against the operators of a "scareware" scheme which tricked computer 
> users into thinking they were infected, and then sold them a "fix", 
> officials said on Tuesday.
> 
> The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the court imposed the fine 
> on Kristy Ross and two companies, Innovative Marketing and 
> ByteHosting Internet Services, and permanently barred them from 
> selling computer security software.
> 
> The FTC said its probe dated back to 2008 when it charged Ross and 
> six other defendants with scamming more than 1 million consumers into 
> buying software to remove malware supposedly detected by computer scans.
> 
> The FTC charged that the operation used elaborate and technologically 
> sophisticated internet ads which displayed to consumers a "system 
> scan" that detected a host of malicious software.
> 
> Consumers who fell for the scheme would pay $US40 to $US60 to clean 
> off the malware.
> 
> Under a 2011 settlement, two other defendants were ordered to give up 
> $US8.2 million in ill-gotten gains. Two others previously settled the 
> charges and the FTC obtained default judgments against three other defendants
> 
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