FTC Announces Crackdown on Computer Speedup/Tech Support Sca
Source: Jason Mick
"Finally Fast PC" better watch out
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced on Wednesday that it was launching a wide crackdown on false tech support advertising, a major problem in the online service industry. Dozens of major companies have jumped on this bandwagon in recent years peddling digital snake oil to customers lacking in tech savvy.
The FTC comments:
"Your computer is damaged ... we'll help you fix it." It’s the latest twist on tech support scams: Scammers sell software online that claims to increase your computer’s performance. They lure you to their websites with pop-up ads or web searches. Then, they tell you to call a phone number to activate or register the software. On the phone, they ask for remote access to your computer and then tell you that your computer has many errors that need to be fixed immediately.
It’s all part of their plan to sell you bogus "security" or "technical support" products or services. Really, your computer is fine. They want to charge you �C possibly hundreds of dollars �C for software and services that you don’t need and that doesn’t help.
The FTC singled out several companies that it had already sued over false, alarmist claims that attempt to trick users into thinking their computer is in trouble and can be fixed by their software. This kind of scheme is termed by some in the industry as "scareware".
In some cases the vendor's software does do some mild cleanup, but even in the best case, the sales pitch exaggerates the impact and dangers facing the user's machine. But a common thread in all of these scams in an effort to hook the user in to additional unnecessary payments; plots that appear to fit the definition of fraud.
The companies listed were:
New York-based Pairsys
Florida-based Inbound Call Experts (ICE)
Florida-based Vast Tech Support
All three companies' services were shut down by federal judges pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
Still, many of these scammers appear to be continuing to openly operate. One high profile one, for example, is "Finally Fast PC" and "My Clean PC", both of which were promoted via national cable television ad campaigns. Both services made vague claims about how your computer might "die" from malware infection and that their software would save it and speed it up. This was typically a gross exagerration.
My Clean PC had a 1 star rating with Consumer Affairs, with over 50,000+ complaints filed against it.
Some consumers actually report My Clean PC representatives remotely damaging their computers, and then demanding additional payments to undo the damage. Writes one user:
I, just like everyone else has seen the commercial for 19.99. After speaking with a salesperson I was informed that I would have to pay 99.99 with a Live Tech subscription of 19.95 per month. After chatting remotely with the tech I was then informed that Microsoft was to blame and I needed to contact them. By the way they conveniently deleted my security system from my computer and installed their own. I then contacted Microsoft immediately and they remotely showed me a new scan of my computer which revealed over 4000 problems. That security system they deleted... I had to pay 249.00 to get it back. When I contacted MyCleanPC, I was simply told sorry but they were just unable to give me my money back. These people need to be stopped!!!
My Clean PC
My Clean PC threatened users that they better buy its services or their computer would wind up in "the computer graveyard" in a national ad campaign (pictured). In reality, its software bordered on malware and sought to hold users' computers ransom.
Likewise, "Finally Fast PC" was sued and eventually settled with the Washington state Attorney General's office, agreeing to pay fines. The state noted in its grievance filing against the supposed tech support service, that its "diagnostic" tool consistently lied to customers. The document states:
The free scan categorizes everything that it identifies as an 'error.'
The bad news is that even after that 2011 settlement, the site continues to operate, and continues to receive complaints for deceiving customers. It seems that the scammers won't quit this lucrative scheme until they're forced to.
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