The Federal Trade Commission, with the State of Florida, are cracking down on two telemarketing operations that reportedly sold over $120 million worth of technical support services and software.
The FTC said that it had acquired a court order to temporarily close and freeze the assets of the two companies under investigation.
The companies used several names, including Advanced Tech Supportco, Boost Software, OMG Tech Help, PC Vitalware and Vast Tech Support, in their operations.
The companies utilized software that was specifically designed to trick people into thinking that their computers contained errors or bugs that required fixing. The victims were then directed to receive support services that were "high-pressure deceptive sales pitches" for software that would fix the nonexistent issues on the computers.
"These operations prey on consumers' lack of technical knowledge with deceptive pitches and high-pressure tactics to sell useless software and services," said FTC bureau of consumer protection director Jessica Rich.
The FTC said that it will be seeking for the companies to disgorge the profits that they made, along with proper restitution to the consumers that they victimized.
The consumers that were targeted by the companies were those that clicked on some pop-up ads or on search results that were connected to common computer terms. The advertisements offered customers free software that would supposedly scan a computer for any malicious files.
Once installed and run, the software will identify false issues, exaggerate minor problems, or trick people into thinking that their systems were heavily compromised.
One example is a program with the name PC Cleaner Pro. The software scans the victim's computer for signs for any of 926 pieces of malware. However, the victims do not know that the listed malware all date back to at least 2004, and have been inactive for several years.
Microsoft has already fixed the issues associated with the malware years ago, so the software that blocks them are no longer required. When the software scans the victim's computer, it finds that the computer is under threat to be infected with the malware, but does not state that the malware are no longer active.
The software then offers the victim to fix the nonexistent issue with a paid version of PC Cleaner Pro for $29.99. Once the amount is paid, the victims are directed to a toll-free number for the activation of the program, wherein the company pressures them with high-pressure tactics to purchase more services and software that could amount to up to $500.
According to the FTC, from the years 2011 and 2013, PC Cleaner Pro was downloaded almost half a million times.
