Firm charged $1 million in rogue spyware case

Heavy fines and fees hit fake 'Spyware Cleaner' pushers.

A Seattle court has announced a $1 million settlement in a case brought against a spyware firm, marking the first successful prosecution under Washington state's anti-spyware laws.

The company, New York-based 'Secure Computer', pushed products with names such as Spyware Cleaner and Popup Padlock from sites like myspywarecleaner.com and checkforspyware.com. In typical 'rogue anti-spyware' fashion, the products would offer a free 'scan', which would invariably claim to have found spyware on their victims' computers. The software would then demand licence fees to clean the alleged infection, but would in fact continue to infest the machine, compromising privacy and security.

These tactics, dubbed 'scareware' by the Washington Attorney General Rob McKenne, breached the state's anti-spyware laws, which prohibit making such false claims about software. Secure Computer has been ordered to contact all Washington residents who fell for the scam offering refunds, and has been prohibited from using a variety of deceptive practices, including using devious marketing techniques to promote its software.

The company is expected to pay fines of $200,000, as well as $75,000 in refunds to their victims, and $725,000 in fees and costs for the court case. Several individuals were also named in the suit, one of whom, accused of breaking spam laws in marketing the products, has yet to be tracked down by the courts.

The announcement from the Washington Attorney General's office, including links to various legal documents on the case, is here.

05 December 2006

Tags: virus del.icio.us digg this