FTC targets scareware scammers - castleboloody

Technologically sophisticated readers may observe it vexed to conceive the 10000 ways in which unsuspecting PC users fall prey to online scams, but it happens day in and day out.

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday cracked down on telemarketers who bilked consumers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars under the guise of fixing their computers. The scammers called consumers and directed them to a utility log in their computers that displays warnings and errors as part of its normal operations. The scammers would then bid to rule out the "malware" for a fee.

As part of the investigation, FTC agents posed as uneducated consumers and recorded phone calls from scammers. In many instances, the telemarketers threatened that, without purchasing a fix, the user risked a computer explosion.

The FTC Wednesday said it filed charges on Kinsfolk. 24 in the Southern District Court of New York State to stop the scams. A federal official judge then ordered Captain Hicks of the scammers to halt trading operations and froze $180,000 in assets.

The scammers are largely based in India and mainly targeted English-talking customers in the United States, Canada, Australia, and United Realm, the FTC aforesaid.

The FTC also announced that scammer Kristy Ross was fined $163 million for selling fake malware clean-up software package. The FTC said more than one million people bought into this scam between 2000 and 2008.

McAfee's Gary Davis, vice president of global consumer marketing, says the company perpetually battles scammers and struggled to convince Google to take down McAfee-branded terms not associated with the company.Some other scammer also named in the FTC's lawsuit reply-paid Google $1 million for search ads that would direct consumers to hollo the defrauder's cost-free numeral when searching for McAfee backup or PC fixes.

Davis says scammers terms his keep company's brand "when you call and impersonate McAfee and charge (consumers) for something."

In ace instance, a McAfee employee's mother was scammed by someone pretence to be a tech patronize worker. The telemarketer uninstalled the woman's antivirus software and reinstalled it for a hefty fee.

"When you're targeting mass World Health Organization don't empathize the nuances of security and they're really vulnerable, it makes it a real headache," Davis says.

Scareware is actually on the decline, McAfee reportable earlier this year, due to crackdowns ilk the FTC's lawsuits. But another eccentric of terror, ransomware–applications that hold computers or the files stored along them for ransom–is spiking.

"Scammers are always nerve-wracking to find a new angle to deed," John Davys says.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/461530/ftc-targets-scareware-scammers.html

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