Spyware firms pay token fines to FTC
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Can't pay, will only pay $50K Two alleged spyware operations have settled lawsuits brought by the US Federal Trade Commission.â¦
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Over the past few years, computer crimes and annoyances have become an increasingly important part of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's work. In the past year, the FTC has announced settlements with spammers, adware distributors, and even Sony BMG Music Entertainment, over its distribution of rootkit software.
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The Federal Trade Commission won an important victory last week in its fight to protect consumers from spyware, the software that tracks unsuspecting Web surfers, bombards them with advertisements and sometimes even steal login information and passwords.
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The BSA trade group ups its reward for information on U.K. companies that are using illegal software.
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New plug-in software for browsers aims to help people avoid becoming victims of online fraud.
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday filed a legal complaint against two companies that allegedly infected computers with spyware and pop-up advertising, then tried to sell their owners spyware-blocking software.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed securities fraud charges against two Texas men who allegedly hijacked computers nationwide to send millions of spam e-mails and cheat investors out of more than $4.6 million. The men used networks of compromised computers, often called botnets, to send out spam about at least 13 penny stock companies, the SEC said Monday. The SEC began to investigate the operation after one of its enforcement attorneys received one of the e-mail messages at work. Darrel Uselton and his uncle, Jack Uselton, both repeat securities law violators, illegally profited during a 20-month scalping scam, the SEC said. The two obtained shares from 13 or more penny stock companies and sold those shares after pumping up the market through manipulative trading, spam e-mail campaigns, direct mailers and Internet-based promotions, the SEC said. The SEC defines scalping as recommending that other people purchase a security while secretly selling the same stock. In related actions, the Attorney General's Office for Texas and the Harris County District Attorney's Office indicted the Useltons for engaging in organized criminal activity and money laundering. The Texas authorities have seized more than $4.2 million from bank accounts controlled by the Useltons, the SEC said. The SEC's action is "intended to protect investors from fraud artists who would treat the investing public as their personal ATM machines," SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement. The scheme, by combining get-rich-quick promises, computer intrusions and spam, was a "virulent threat to ordinary investors," he added. The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, alleges that the Useltons used an array of computer botnets to anonymously flood the inboxes of American investors with millions of spam e-mails touting near-worthless penny stocks. Each campaign, which featured a single company, lasted from several days to several weeks. Between May 2005 and December 2006, the Useltons obtained more than $4.6 million through their fraudulent scheme, the SEC alleged. The Useltons and the companies they controlled typically received unrestricted shares from penny stock companies for little or no money, in return for purported financing or promotional activities, the SEC said. Darrel Uselton was disciplined by the National Association of Securities Dealers in 2004 and 2005. Jack Uselton was permanently barred from violating the SEC's antifraud provision in a 2002 settled action, the SEC said. The SEC in March 2007 suspended trading in the securities of three of the companies involved as part of its antispam initiative. The SEC revoked the registration of a fourth company in December 2005.
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As pests, adware, and other malicious applications infiltrate corporate computers with greater frequency, some vendors, including McAfee and Computer Associates, are bundling anti-spyware into security management suites, giving IT more tools to control the hazard.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington's attorney general has settled the first case prosecuted under the state's 2005 Computer Spyware Act. The settlement. announced Monday, is with antispyware vendor Secure Computer LLC. The White Plains, New York, software companyÂ was accused of marketing its product via deceptive spam and pop-up ads, which offered free spyware scans that always detected a problem with the computer that was scanned. The company and its president, Paul Burke, will pay $725,000 in legal fees and $200,000 in penalties, and will reimburse Washington state customers $75,000, said Paula Selis, senior council with the attorney general's office. "Given the scope of the defendants' practices and the amount of consumer harm out there, we feel this is a very fair settlement." More than 1,100 state residents purchased the company's Spyware Cleaner software since it went on the market in 2004, Selis said. Those customers will now be e-mailed by Secure Computer and offered a refund for the $49.95 product, under terms of the settlement. Secure Computer, which admits no wrongdoing in the matter, is also prohibited from usingÂ deceptive marketing techniquesÂ to promote its software, and the company must now review the advertising of its marketing affiliates to make sure they comply with the settlement. That seems like an unlikely possibility, however, because Spyware Cleaner was pulled from the market shortly after the lawsuits were filed in late January, and Secure Computer LLC is now out of business, according to the company's Web site. Representatives from Secure Computer could not be reached for comment. Secure Computer and four of its business partners were sued by Microsoft and the Washington attorney general in January, but charges against three of the men have already been settled. A fourth man, Manoj Kumar of Maharashtra, India, could not be located, the attorney general's office said. Â
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Regulators are trying to prevent scams caused by software that computer users may not even know is on their PCs.
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With phishing attacks skyrocketing, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a consumer alert detailing ways Web surfers can avoid being fleeced by online scammers.
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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 "spyware" and then trying to sell people the solution.
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The US Federal Trade Commission last week filed a legal complaint against two companies that allegedly infected computers with spyware and pop-up advertising, then tried to sell their owners spyware-blocking software.
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THE US Federal Trade Commission has filed America&#39;s first case against software companies accused of infecting computers with intrusive spyware and then trying to sell people the solution.
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Companies and others that secretly install "spyware" programs on people's computers to quietly monitor their Internet activities would face hefty federal fines under a bill the House passed Tuesday.    The most egregious behaviors ascribed to the category of such software - secretly recording a person's computer keystrokes or mouse clicks - are already illegal under U.S...
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FTC says pretexting violates federal law, targets companies involved in HP scandal.
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With Congress considering new legislation to increase penalties against spyware companies that install programs on people&#39;s computers without their knowledge, the Federal Trade Commission last week filed a complaint against Sanford Wallace, the New