FTC Files Complaint Against Alleged Spyware Distributor
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The FTC said it believes the companies induced computer users to buy its spyware-eradication software, sold for US$30 and bearing names such as Spy Wiper and Spy Deleter, after first infecting
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Officials in the US are cracking down on an alleged distributor of Internet &quot;Spyware.&quot; In the first suit of its kind, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims Seismic Entertainment and SmartBot, secretly installs programs on a users&#39; computer without
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The Federal Trade Commission is going after spyware, bits of computer code that install themselves on the computers of Internet users to track or disrupt their online activities.
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InfoWorld - An online advertiser that drove traffic to its Web sites by sending out spam with misleading subject lines has agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)Â complaint charging that it failed to tell consumers they had to spend money to receive so-called free products, the FTC announced Wednesday.
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Companies are accused of infecting PCs, and then selling spyware-blocking software.
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An online advertiser that drove traffic to its Web sites by sending out spam with misleading subject lines has agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;complaint charging that it failed to tell consumers they had to spend money to receive so-called free products, the FTC announced Wednesday.The settlement requires Member Source Media to disclose the costs and obligations associated with the advertised products and services, and bars the company from sending e-mail that violates the CAN-SPAM Act, which regulates the sending of unsolicited e-mail. The company must also pay $200,000 in civil penalties, according to the settlement approved Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.Member Source Media -- doing business as ConsumerGain.com, PremiumPerks.com, FreeRetailRewards.com, and GreatAmericanGiveaways.com -- and the company&#8217;s owner, Chris Sommer, used deceptive spam and online advertising to lure customers to its Web sites, the FTC alleged.The company used e-mail subject lines such as, &quot;Congratulations. You&#39;ve won an iPod Video Player,&quot; &quot;Here are 2 free iPod Nanos for You: confirm now,&quot; and &quot;Second Attempt: Target Gift Card Inside,&quot; the FTC said in a press release. The company&#39;s Web-based ads contained similar offers: &quot;CONGRATULATIONS! You Have Been Chosen To Receive a FREE GATEWAY LAPTOP.&quot;When consumers arrived at Member Source Media&#39;s Web pages, they were led through a series of ads for goods and services from third parties.To qualify for their &quot;free products,&quot; consumers would have to first wade through pages of &quot;optional&quot; offers. Once they navigated those pages, they had to participate in a series of third-party promotions requiring them to do things such as purchase products, subscribe to satellite television service, or apply for multiple credit cards, the FTC said.Member Source Media&#39;s failure to disclose material facts was deceptive and violated the FTC Act, the FTC said. In addition, the agency charged that deceptive subject lines in Member Source Media&#39;s spam e-mails violated the federal CAN-SPAM Act.The settlement requires that Member Source Media clearly disclose in its ads and on its Web pages that consumers have to spend money or incur other obligations to qualify for a free product or service. The settlement also requires the company to provide a list of the obligations a consumer is likely to incur to qualify for their chosen item -- such as applying for credit cards or purchasing products.
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(InfoWorld) - CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Two of the agencies most actively involved in bringing cyber-criminals to justice in the United States have expressed opposing opinions over pending anti-spyware legislation. Even as a trio of spyware bills is moving forward on Capitol Hill, officials from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said their two organizations have differing views on the need for passage of the proposed laws. At a forum sponsored by the Anti-Spyware Coalition and held here at Harvard Law School on June 27, officials from the FTC and CDT -- a Washington-based nonprofit that has become a prominent Internet policy watchdog -- detailed areas where their organizations diverge regarding Congressional anti-spyware bills. The Anti-Spyware Coalition -- a security consortium backed by industry players including AOL, Dell, Google, McAfee, Microsoft, and Yahoo -- hosted the panel that brought legal experts from the two organizations together to air their differences. The discussion was hosted by John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law, a well-known expert in the field of Internet security and privacy issues The three pieces of legislation being debated were the Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2007 (I-SPY Act) and Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT) -- both of which passed vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in May and remain up for debate in the Senate -- and the Counter Spy Act of 2007, introduced before the Senate in mid-June. While both the FTC and CDT are actively involved in attempts to bring suspected purveyors of spyware to court and stop them from distributing illegal code to end-users, the agencies appear to be divided over whether the new laws will result in more prosecutions. The CDT supports passage of all three proposed bills, claiming that any additional laws that increase civil and criminal penalties against spyware brokers and better define illegal practices will prove helpful in bringing new cases -- despite the group's recognition of flaws in all three bills. For its part, the FTC contends that the new laws may only serve to muddle its ability to go after cyber-criminals when it finds them. In outlining each of the bills for the assembled audience, CDT Deputy Director Ari Schwartz highlighted the group's hopes for each of the measures. The I-SPY Act is the least controversial of the three bills in that it merely seeks to extend penalties established in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- originally passed in 1986 -- and make the legal punishments for criminal hacking more severe. The CDT is fully behind the bill and it passed through House hearings with almost no opposition, proving its overall appeal, Schwartz said. The SPY ACT -- originally written by California Republican Rep. Mary Bono and passed by the House in previous sessions -- has proven more divisive; some businesses are expressing serious concerns about the proposal's limitations on consumer information gathering and the fact that the bill would supersede existing state anti-spyware laws. Even though the CDT is against the idea of undercutting existing state laws, the group still supports the measure as it raises penalties on some criminal cyber-crimes and directly addresses troublesome spyware affiliate distribution issues, said Schwartz. The Counter Spy Act was only recently re-introduced by Arkansas Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. Previous backers of the bill were voted out of Congress last year, making chances slim that the legislation will move forward quickly. However, the CDT favors the bill's effort to more clearly define the parameters of illegal adware programs, said Schwartz. Issues over the weighting of state and federal anti-spyware measures shouldn't stand in the way of the proposed bills, whose benefits outweigh their loopholes and could help lead to more cases against cyber-criminals, the CDT leader contends. He cited the relatively light punishment handed out in cases brought against proven spyware brokers such as DirectRevenue and Zango as proof that existing laws are insufficient. "Raising penalties is useful, DirectRevenue should have been fined more than $5 million, Zango should have been fined more than $3 million, and they would have been if we had more direct penalties," Schwartz said. "Most people are supportive of these bills, CDT would be happy with raising penalties without pre-empting the states, but most companies looking at these bills are pushing for pre-emption." On the flip side, the FTC feels that existing laws provide it with sufficient power to go after spyware providers, even though the agency has only filed a dozen such suits in recent years. Tracy Shapiro, an attorney for the FTC's Advertising Practices Division, said the federal watchdog would like to see legislation that increases civil penalties against cyber-criminals, but it feels that the new bills could eventually get in its way in bringing accused spyware companies to trial. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act remains broad enough to provide for continued prosecution of the most significant offenders, including spyware providers, she said. "In general there doesn't need to be a law specifically outlining spyware. There's a danger in saying 'no keystroke logging' because that's too specific and someone might look at the law and say another practice is OK," said Shapiro. "Sometimes it's hard to craft legislation to address specific types of technologies; it seems like a good argument against new laws if we can get judgments already." In addition to the potential to create loopholes by limiting their scope to existing threats, the specific nature of the bills could make them hard to apply to similar threats carried out in the future on mobile devices, as opposed to today's PC-based spyware schemes, she said. On the flip side, Schwartz said the CDT has been surprised and disappointed that the FTC hasn't brought any lawsuits based on the SafeWeb Act, passed by Congress in 2006 and aimed at helping the agency fight spam, spyware, and online fraud. The expert said it was particularly puzzling that the FTC hasn't taken advantage of elements of the SafeWab law aimed at aiding in the pursuit of cyber-criminals operating in other countries -- widely recognized as one of the biggest challenges in fighting malware and online fraud. "We've seen very little action under the SafeWeb Act; there have been some joint spyware cases with Canada where U.S.-based adware companies were working within Canada, which seemed like the perfect opportunities to use it," said Schwartz. "We thought [SafeWeb] was worth passing, and we want to see some action on it soon." Shapiro admitted that she didn't know of any cases brought by the FTC that have sought to apply the SafeWeb laws. In the area of international cyber-law enforcement, she said it remains a challenge to share information with some foreign governments. Other Anti-Spyware Coalition contributors remarked that they share the FTC's concerns over passing laws that may eventually serve to handcuff enforcers with outdated terms and conditions. "We're pretty much against the laws," said Alex Eckelberry, president of anti-spyware applications vendor Sunbelt Software. "We think they will do more harm than good."
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed charges against a payment processing company, accusing it of attempting to debit consumers&#39; bank accounts for up to $200 million on behalf of dishonest merchants.Those consumers either never received the goods or received worthless items, said the FTC, which filed the complaint with seven other U.S. states. The payment company allegedly violated both federal and state consumer fraud laws, telemarketing rules, and FTC regulations regarding the unfair processing of payments.The payment processing company went by several names, which are listed in a FTC news release. The FTC alleges the company processed payments for fraudulent telemarketers and Internet-based merchants that used deceptive sales scripts and methods.About $69 million of the $200 million in transactions were either rejected by consumers or returned because of lack of proper payment authorization, the FTC said.The FTC wants to refund consumers and force the company to forfeit money it still holds from the fraud in addition to other civil penalties. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.The states that have joined the suit are Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Vermont.
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported to authorities Friday an e-mail circulating to employers that alleges to be a harassment complaint from the federal agency and contains links to a computer virus.
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The Federal Trade Commission formally announced yesterday its first assault against spyware - bits of computer code that surreptitiously install themselves on the computers of Internet users
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;has settled a complaint with a Web-based company it accused of selling people&#39;s telephone records without permission, the agency said Monday.
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The FTC has won a settlement against a spyware operation responsible for installing malware on users' computers that tracked Internet activity, changed home-page settings and inserted a large frame onto browser windows that displayed ads.
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This week, the US Federal Trade Commission is apparently not yet satisfied that Intel has adequately addressed its standard antitrust concerns. Today, Intel announced it received what is formally called a "second request" notice from the FTC.
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WASHINGTON -- In what regulators are calling a first, the federal government has asked for a court order to shut down a spyware operation.
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The US Federal Trade Commission on Thursday asked a federal court to shut down an operation that it said disables users&#39; computers in an attempt to bully them into buying anti-spyware products.
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By Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune  Sep. 7--A federal lawsuit that pitted a Naperville attorney who wanted to bring class-action status against a company he says puts spyware on personal computers was dismissed Wednesday before reaching trial.
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Complaint includes violation of privacy, false advertising, and unjust enrichment.