A New York company which claimed to help clean spyware off
personal computers has been accused of spamming and using other
nefarious and deceptive marketing practices to promote its
software.
Washington's Attorney General Rob McKenna has filed a law suit
against Secure Computer LLC of White Plains, New York, alleging
that the company's anti-spyware software falsely claims that
computers are infected in an attempt to encourage computer users to
pay $49.95 for a fully-working version. According to the suit, the
Spyware Cleaner does not remove spyware from the PC, but rather
modifies settings on the computer.
The law suit claims that some of the emails sent pretended to
come from MSN Member Services with the subject line "Special
Security Alert for MSN Members", giving the false impression that
the emails were being sent by Microsoft security personnel. Other
warnings are alleged to have been sent to computers running Windows
Messenger, to force a pop-up message to appear on recipients'
machines, posing as a message from the Windows operating
system.
The Spyware Cleaner website.
Named in the suit are Secure Computer President Paul Burke and
Gary Preston, registered owner of websites used to promote Spyware
Cleaner. Burke and Preston are said to have made more than $100,000
by selling the software through affiliates.
"Computer users fear spyware on their computers, so to receive a
warning that malicious spyware has been identified might easily
lead someone to purchasing cleaning software," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "For anyone to prey on those
fears and resort to displaying bogus detection messages, or
promoting their products through spam, is simply despicable."
Other defendants alleged to be affiliate advertisers of Spyware
Cleaner, and said to have advertised the product through spam
email, messages, and Google adverts, have been named as Manoj
Kumar, Zhijian Chen, and Seth T Traub.
"This case reveals some of the underhand and criminal tactics
which are being used to market goods to internet users," continued
Cluley. "Everyone should exercise caution about whose software they
run on their computer, and be careful not to believe every message
or email their PC pops up in front of them. Just because a company
or website has an impressive-sounding name doesn't mean they should
be trusted."
Sophos recommends companies protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam
threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with
automatically updated anti-virus protection.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.