FTC Provides Refunds to 320,000 Scareware Scam Victims

[Jack]

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled an agreement with individuals and companies who were caught running a massive fake antivirus campaign and, now, they plan on sharing the $8 million (5.6 million EUR) they won with a few hundred thousand consumers who paid certain amounts of money for scareware software.

We are constantly reporting how cybercrooks promote applications that instantly point out false errors present in operating systems and hardware. In order to get them fixed, the Internet user is required to purchase the premium version of the product or activate it by paying for a license.

A first big step forward against these scammers was achieved by the FTC which managed to come to a settlement with Innovative Marketing and others that were found to launch such operations.

Winfixer, Drive Cleaner and XP Antivirus were just some of the phony applications that allegedly repaired problems that didn’t exist in the first place for around 320,000 individuals.

“Consumers who receive checks must cash them within 60 days. The average amount of the checks will be $20, however the exact amounts will be based on the amount of individual loss. The FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information before redress checks can be cashed,” reads a statement from the FTC.

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[McLovin]

That's bad, shows how people can easily fall for stuff like that. Wouldnt you think that if you are getting fakes pop ups people would look into it and find out that its fake. Plus now that fake company will now I bet have to return all the money that they took from people and give it back to them.

 

[Jack]

This guys were scammed back in 2008 and now the FTC managed to get to a settlement in court with the criminals for 8.000.00$ , you really have to wonder how much money this guys have made if they agreed to pay such a large amount of money... :shy:
I to remember XP Antivirus but never really suspected that they've managed to make so much money from this rogues...... might just made the wrong carrier decision..

 

[McLovin]

might just made the wrong carrier decision..

Yeah, that's true. Who knows they might and try and do it in the future.