FTC takes aim at alleged spyware distributor
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In a lawsuit, the commission alleges that two companies engaged in unfair acts and practices with their marketing and software.
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Malicious-toolbar distributor pays more than $2 million in federal settlement.
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StopBadware.org and Center for Democracy and Technology file FTC complaint against FastMP3Search.
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U.S. Federal Trade Commission says that a bill stalled in Congress would give it the tools it needs to fight spyware.
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A sting in the works for most of 2006 has trigged over 100 law-enforcement actions targeting fraudulent business-opportunity offers and work-at-home scams, the FTC announced Tuesday.
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Spyware has come under target of the Federal Trade Commission with a new complaint filed in federal court which is requesting that two Internet based advertising and software firms be closed.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to investigate claims by Trend Micro of competitors&#39; patent infringement involving antivirus products.Trend Micro filed a trade complaint Nov. 21 against fellow cybersecurity vendors Barracuda Networks of Campbell, California; Panda Software International, based in Spain; and Panda Distribution of Glendale, California.Trend Micro&#39;s complaint accuses the three companies of infringing its patent for virus detection and removal apparatus for computer networks. The technology &quot;represents a dramatic departure from the traditional antivirus methods of safeguarding individual computers,&quot; the company says in its complaint.The Trend Micro complaint accuses Barracuda of importing antivirus software that infringes its patent. The complaint says Barracuda uses code from the open-source antivirus product ClamAV, which is written in part in Europe and Australia. Barracuda also imports hardware components, the complaint says.Panda&#39;s products also contain code imported into the U.S., the Trend Micro complaint says.A Barracuda spokeswoman said the complaint is curious. &quot;It is interesting that the ITC has decided to take up an investigation, given Barracuda Networks manufactures all of its products in the United States and does not import anything of significance,&quot; said Kylie Heintz.A Panda representative didn&#39;t immediately respond to a request for comments.The ITC case will be referred to an administrative law judge, who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The judge will make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. That initial determination is subject to commission review.The ITC will make a final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time, the commission said in a news release. Within 45 days, the ITC will set a target date for completing the investigation.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked a federal court to require an alleged Web page hijacking operation to obey previous orders barring unfair and deceptive practices.Walter Rines, business partner Sanford Wallace, and Rines&#39; company, Online Turbo Merchant, diverted users of MySpace.com to other Web sites and barraged them with ads to earn advertising commissions, according to court papers filed with the FTC. The defendants used pagejacking, phishing, and other methods to target MySpace users in violation of a previous court order, the FTC said in a news release.The FTC, in a Jan. 23 filing, asked the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire to order the defendants to give up the money they earned from their MySpace scheme.Rines&#39; listed phone number in New Hampshire was disconnected.In October 2005, the FTC charged Odysseus Marketing and its owner, Rines, with luring consumers to their Web site by offering free software, including a program that supposedly allowed them to engage in anonymous peer-to-peer file sharing. The software was bundled with spyware that intercepted and replaced search results and barraged consumers&#39; computers with pop-up ads, the FTC said. The software also stole users&#39; personal information, and users were unable to locate or uninstall the spyware through reasonable means, the FTC said.The FTC alleged that the defendants&#39; software captured consumers&#39; personal information and transmitted the information to the defendants&#39; servers. Consumers were unable to locate or uninstall the spyware through reasonable means, the agency charged. The court ordered a preliminary halt to these practices pending trial, and in October 2006 Odysseus and Rines settled the charges by stipulating to a permanent injunction.The permanent injunction prohibited the defendants from redirecting consumers&#39; computers; from changing any Web browser&#39;s default home page; and from modifying or replacing the functions of any computer application. It required Rines and his company to obtain consumers&#39; express consent before downloading or distributing any content to their computers.The permanent injunction also imposed a $1.75 million judgment, and all but $10,000 was suspended based on the defendants&#39; inability to pay.In its recent filing, the FTC alleges that Rines, his company, and Wallace knew of the permanent injunction and violated that order by diverting users from MySpace.com to their Web sites.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against digital music service BurnLounge Inc., accusing the company of operating an illegal pyramid scheme, the FTC announced Tuesday.
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Federal authorities have asked a US District Court judge to shut down an operation that they said installed intrusive spyware on people&#39;s computers and then sold the victims anti-spyware software
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A U.S. Internet marketer has agreed  to stop inundating computers with unwanted "spyware" that can  disable users' computers while he fights a lawsuit from the  U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
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The man at the center of the nation's first spyware case &#151; a businessman notorious for his junk Internet mailings &#151; says federal regulators were politically motivated in targeting him for enforcement of new bills outlawing intrusive software.
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Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick is the target of a formal FTC investigation, focusing on privacy issues and on the possibility that the merger raises antitrust issues.
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(InfoWorld) - An operation that allegedly installed illegal spyware on computers will give more than US$2 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint. The FTC has obtained a settlement order against Enternet Media Inc., Conspy & Co. Inc., Lida Rohbani, Nima Hakimi and Baback Hakimi, all based in California, the agency announced Wednesday. The defendants distributed software called Search Miracle, Miracle Search, EM Toolbar, EliteBar and Elite Toolbar, the FTC said. In an order issued by Judge Christine Snyder of the U.S District Court for Central California, the defendants are prohibited from interfering with computer use, such as distributing software code that tracks Internet activity, changes browser settings and inserts new advertising toolbars onto browsers. The defendants also are permanently prohibited from making misleading representations regarding the performance, features, and cost, of any software, including misrepresenting that the code is an Internet browser upgrade or other computer security software, music, song, lyric or cell phone ring tone. The Web sites of the defendants and their affiliates caused installation boxes to pop up on consumersâ computer screens, the FTC said in its complaint. In one variation of the scheme, the boxes offered a variety of freeware, including music files, cell phone ring tones, photographs, wallpaper and song lyrics. In another, the boxes warned that consumersâ Internet browsers were defective, and offered free browser upgrades or security patches. Users who downloaded the supposed freeware or security upgrades did not receive what they were promised, Instead, their computers were infected with spyware that interfered with their computers and was difficult to uninstall, the FTC said. The defendants' software tracked Internet activity, changed home-page settings and inserted a large frame onto browser windows that displayed advertisements, the FTC said. At the FTCâs request, the court froze the operationâs assets last fall and ordered it shut down. The settlement requires the defendants to give up just over $2 million of their spyware-related profits and includes a suspended judgment of $8.5 million. The FTC brought the case with assistance from Microsoft Corp., Webroot Software Inc. and Google Inc., the agency said.
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The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday filed the first case in the country against software companies accused of infecting computers with intrusive &quot;spyware
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FTC charges that New York firm infected victims' computers with adware.
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SPYWARE COMPANY executive Sanford Wallace and his two companies, Seismic Entertainment Productions and SmartBot.Net will be the first to have the dubious honour of being charged by the FTC.