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United States Government Operating Systems Software The Courts Windows The Almighty Buck News

FTC Shuts Down Fraudulent Antispyware Company 198

Posted by timothy from the click-here-to-remove-viruses dept.
spewey writes "The Federal Trade Commission has shut down MaxTheater, Inc., alleging the company participated in fraudulent practices with its Spyware Assassin site, which purportedly scanned user machines for spyware and reported infections, even though no scan was done and in most cases, the user machine was clean. The site then offered the user a $30 product to remove the spyware, which the commission reports 'didn't do a thing.'"
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FTC Shuts Down Fraudulent Antispyware Company More

FTC Shuts Down Fraudulent Antispyware Company

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  • Down (Score:5, Informative)

    by maotx ( 765127 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (xtoam)> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:13PM (#11921831)
    with its Spyware Assassin site

    I'm getting a blank page with the title "New Page 1"
    Here is a google cache [64.233.161.104].

  • Clean Machines? (Score:5, Funny)

    by multipartmixed ( 163409 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:14PM (#11921839) Homepage
    > in most cases, the user machine was clean.

    Yeah, right. Where the hell did they get clean windoze boxen from??

    • Re:Clean Machines? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:17PM (#11921863)
      "windoze boxen"?

      You're thirteen, right?

    • Re:Clean Machines? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by thesnarky1 ( 846799 )
      After I do a sweep of my system using McAffe, Zone Alarm, and Ad-aware, mine's pretty sqeeky clean. At least enough to know the 121 infections it reported had to be false.
    • Probably my house.
    • Where did they get clean Windows boxes? Fresh installs, of course.

    • Re:Clean Machines? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by blanks ( 108019 )
      My business laptop which I only use for work and development has never had any type of infection on it.

      I dont download freeware, or any software really, everything is installed from cd.

      I dont use p2p, torrents etc. dont need it so I dont use it.

      I only visit about 30 websites, all of which I trust, everything else is set to be un trusted.

      anti virus, firewall, and security permissions set to high.

      Its really simple to keep your machine clean, as long as you keep the idea of infections at the top of your l
      • Wow - the things people go through. I just use my computers. But then, I don't use windows.
      • As the best browsers are download-only, you're still using Internet Explorer, right?

        And as you can't get I.M. systems on CD, you use MSN, right?

        Can I assume that when you want to edit small config files, you open Notepad and struggle through the interface?

        And you must be using Outlook or outlook express, as all of the good alternatives are download. Except for Lotus, which I've never had the pleasure of using but others assure me is great.

        Face it, going no-downloaded software is unrealistic for most pe
        • Yeah I know its very unrealistic for most people, but like I side, this is my business laptop. I owe it to my company to keep my data as secure as possiable (which means 99% of my files are stored else where accessable via vpn).

          My personal computers at home are a different story natuarlly, they are my entertainment, and if something happens to them they get reformatted.
      • ZERO infections here as well:

        System history goes back thru Win98/95/3.1, online an average of 140 hrs/month since 1996. NO patches except for the con/con bug. I run an old version of ZoneAlarm set variously to medium or high (high doesn't always play nice). I visit a LOT of, um, dark corners, and download tons of shit (which I scan later with FProt for DOS; I don't run a resident AV), but I don't use P2P, and I tend not to install much noncommercial software, because frankly too much of it sucks (clean or
      • So none of these sites have banner ads [eweek.com] then?

        They only way to be sure is to airwall your machine... and even then they guys from Mission Impossible could break in ;)

  • Interesting to note... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by yuriismaster ( 776296 ) <tubaswimmer.gmail@com> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:18PM (#11921868) Homepage
    FTA:

    "[MaxTheatre's Media] represent that they have "scanned" or otherwise examined the consumer's computer and have detected that spyware already resides on it."

    I smell precedence!

    Almost every single pop-up ad proclaims to have found spyware on my machine, and not all of them are SpywareAssassin. Can we use this to take down other phony antispyware companies?

  • Oh this is... fun! (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:20PM (#11921886)
    Why not these?

    "The Federal Trade Commission has shut down 3DRealms alleging the company participated in fraudulent practices with its Duke Nukem Forever game, which purportedly rehashed the bawdy actionated adventures of Duke Nukem, even though no game was done and in most cases, the user looked at shoddily put together "screenshots" which seemed to promise an actual game. The site then offered the user a 3D game product, which the commission reports 'doesn't exist.'"
    ...

    "The Federal Trade Commission has shut down Microsoft, alleging the company participated in fraudulent practices with its Windows and Office software, which purportedly gave the illusion of an operating system and/or increased productivity at work, even though no improvement was done and in most cases, the user machine would stop working correctly after a day. The company's site then offered the user a $30 product to enhance security, which the commission reports 'didn't do a thing.' At this time, the only customer that had accepted such a product was the U.S. Air Force, which spent over $30,000,000 allegedly 'securing' its systems."
    ...

    And so on... Any others?

    • Re:Oh this is... fun! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:49PM (#11922106)
      "The Federal Trade Commission has shut down Slashdot, alleging the site participated in fraudulent practices with its user comment forum, which purportedly gave the illusion being a font of insightful, and informative information, even though no valid information was ever conveyed and in most cases, users were posting at the site while giving their employers the false impression that they were working day after day. The site offered nothing in the way of journalistic content or insight employing its user base to do the dirty work of finding stories and then simply posting links and paragraph-long summaries of someone elses journalistic efforts and purporting this to be content while collecting add revenue. The site even went so far as to repeat some links multiple times with slightly different descriptions, to pass these off as new content, which the commission reports wasnt worth a thing.' At this time, the only user that had continuously fallen for this clever ruse was a citizen of the former Soviet Russia, who, in virtually discussion added valuable insights and contrasts to the way things were in his homeland in the good old days."

  • No message? (Score:5, Funny)

    by caryw ( 131578 ) <carywiedemann&gmail,com> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:21PM (#11921890) Homepage
    The FTC should have put up an 0WN3D message explaining why the site was taken down, and what to do if you were defrauded by the company in the past.
    Much more informative than a blank page, and it's what the MPAA does for sites it takes down (ie. lokitorrent.com)

    Then again spywareassassin.com still resides at the same IP address (66.172.78.113) that it did before, so the order was probably to remove all content. Perhaps an A record change or domain transfer to an FTC controlled server (with informational message) is iminent.
    - Cary
    --Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Where Fairfax County comes out to play
    • As it would happen, Lokitorrent's closing by the MPAA was a hoax [slashdot.org].

      • Re:No message? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by freshman_a ( 136603 )
        Since some people seem to take everything posted on /. as 100% fact, I'd like to point out (as many other's did in that articles' comments) that it probably wasn't a hoax.

        a) The MPAA said themselves that they were taking action again LokiTorrent. Google cache here. [64.233.167.104]

        b) I've also read that there was an entry in PACER about the lawsuit as well.
    • In case you haven't heard yet, the lokitorrent shutdown was a fraud and the owner ran off with the "legal defense fund"

    • Re:No message? (Score:5, Informative)

      by dosius ( 230542 ) <bridget@buric.co> on Saturday March 12, 2005 @05:06PM (#11922203) Journal
      Look at the hosts surrounding 66.172.78.113...

      [%] resolved [66.172.78.105] to (www.xxxpersonals-london.co.uk)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.106] to (www.xxxpersonals-southwest.co.uk)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.107] to (www.hotadultcams.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.108] to (www.getitspot.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.109] to (www.crowgod.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.110] to (www.iber-hosting.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.111] to (www.topxxxdvdsites.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.112] to (www.toppornstarsites.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.113] to (www.spywareassassin.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.114] to (www.auctionprofit.net)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.115] to (www.advancedonlinemarketing.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.116] to (www.smutdollars.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.117] to (www.cheapestadultscripts.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.118] to (www.scifiworld.us)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.119] to (www.memscenter.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.120] to (www.equivista.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.121] to (www.orbz.org)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.122] to (www.myseries60.net)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.123] to (www.furaddicted.net)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.124] to (www.animalhackerz.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.125] to (www.crazedmodding.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.126] to (www.free-adult-cartoons-x.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.127] to (www.ovrimos.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.128] to (www.interracialdirectory.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.129] to (www.knoxvilleareapsychology.org)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.130] to (www.lucent-inferno.com)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.131] to (www.basd-action.net)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.132] to (www.can-online.org)
      [%] resolved [66.172.78.133] to (www.masspersonalinjurylawyer.com)

      Sense a pattern? That whole chunk of IP addresses seems to be owned by a shyster.

      Moll.

  • "Shut down" is not enough (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sdo1 ( 213835 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:23PM (#11921905) Journal
    There needs to be SEVERE penalties to discourage others from picking up where this left off. I vote for jail time for the company executives AND those developers who knew exactly what they were doing (or in this case, weren't doing).

    The risk/reward ratio is still tilting too far toward reward for those who would defraud others using the internet.

    -S
    • Jail time for writing software. Jail time for falsely marketing software. Jail time for downloading software. Jail time for cracking software.

      Jail time is *never* the answer here. It's ridiculous to send someone to jail for a long time for selling snake oil. Fine them, ok. Jail them for a few months, ok. 10 years for false advertising? 10 years for cracking copy protection? They're both ridiculous.
      • You think anything short of jail time will actually deter people like this? Fine them and they will only figure out a new way to scam money out of people. There is a reason major fraudsters go to jail instead of mere fines.
      • It's ridiculous to send someone to jail for a long time for selling snake oil.

        If you are a low class thief, and break into 7-11s or houses, you can get decades. Why should upscale thieves, who take the same money, get any less time?
      • The jail time would not be for writing software. That would be silly. However, FRAUD does warrant jail time. The method is mere detail and ultimately unimportant.
      • Jail time is *never* the answer here.

        You are correct. Jail time is not fitting for this crime.

        I'm thinking more along the lines of an overvoltage cattle prod, tube of KY and prime time tv...

        but then again I've also spent 3 days running different spy sweepers on my wife's laptop (where does she find this crap?). Now, where did I put that slackware install CD?

        What is really sad about this, is that it's general populas who buys stuff from spam, who buys stuff from pop ups, these are the root of the prob
    • No kidding. If they can rack up a couple million in sales and abscond with the cash, it does no good to have shut the site down. If they are merely forced to repay all the money that they fraudulently obtained then there still isn't a penalty because they wound up back where they started. In cases like this the responsible party needs spend some time in jail, and they need to pay fines that go beyond simply returning what they took. If there's no risk of losing something then it will just happen again.
  • From the website (google cache):

    SpywareAssassin creates an iron clad line of defense that protects your computer in multiple ways. Not only will it scan your entire system and remove all spyware programs and files, but it will continually monitor your computer in the background and prevent any future breaches.

    IRON CLAD? Iron-Clad in ANY software description makes me run for the hills!

  • Great, now for ad destroyer (Score:3, Informative)

    by iamlucky13 ( 795185 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:25PM (#11921920)
    I'm glad to see spyware assassin gone, but the extortionware I see most on computers I work on is ad destroyer. Let's hope the FTC b!tch slaps them next.

  • Spyware warrior lists numerous similar products (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:25PM (#11921926)
    for adding to your hosts file [nyud.net] (if you havent already)

    http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.h tm [spywarewarrior.com]

  • More like this (Score:3, Interesting)

    by northcat ( 827059 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:27PM (#11921934) Journal
    Don't all those ads saying "Your computer is infected! Clean it now!" (or something like that) and "Windows is running slow! speed it up Blah blah blah bullshit bullshit" fall into this same category?
    • Don't all those ads saying "Your computer is infected! Clean it now!" (or something like that) and "Windows is running slow! speed it up Blah blah blah bullshit bullshit" fall into this same category?

      I would think so. I like to visit those sites and have those messages appear and "we have scanned you and found...." on my Mac. Yeah, right. You got a bridge to sell me, too.
    • "Your Computer Is Broadcasting An IP Address!!"

      "Your House Is Broadcasting A Street Address!!"
      • Apparently my computer is not only broadcasting an IP address, but is also broadcasting data about my browser!

        According to various sites I'm running IE 3.0 (I'm running Firefox), my resolution is 640x480 (It's 1600x1200) and I only have 32mb of RAM (2gb). And they can sell me some software to fix it.

  • Great news! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Phidoux ( 705500 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:28PM (#11921951) Homepage
    Hopefully this will have a positive affect for those of us who develop free software but have to constantly deal with the paranoia of malware and spyware.

  • So why can't the FTC go after... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jasonmicron ( 807603 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:33PM (#11921986)
    CoolWebSearch / Adzilla / Look2Me / Miraclesearch?

    Personally I see this as doing really nothing for (or against) spyware.
    • because these companies aren't fraudulent... they clearly (in font size 2) state they you are installing 'ad/spy/crap ware'
      as much as you don't want to admit you did click something saying you wanted ad's

      this company was lying to customers by saying they had things installed that were not present (or put there by the scanner) and you need to pay $30 to get it off your system.

  • Fallback... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jemenake ( 595948 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @04:41PM (#11922062)
    I guess it's back to the automotive repair buisiness for *those* guys.

    Honestly, when I read this, I had flashbacks to all of those TV news investigative reports of mechanics, exterminators, plumbers, etc. who climb under/behind your car/sink/house and come back with "evidence" of a problem that you need to pay them $$$ to fix.

    So... back to the auto shops with the bums! That's what I say! :)

  • Buy anti-spyware software and get a product that does nothing.

    Use free anti-spyware software and get something that works.

    On a risk level, is it worth spending the money?

    Now I know there was research done between Free and commercial anti-spyware that showed that free software worked better, but ......

    I guess this is a real strong statement regarding obvious motives between the two...

    Besides, should anyone have to pay for protection against thse with intents to invade privacy?

    What a racket.... Now If
    • Buy anti-spyware software and get a product that does nothing.

      Use free anti-spyware software and get something that works.

      OK, I think you're reading way to much into this. People weren't buying anti-spyware software, they were being tricked into paying for smoke and mirrors. If they had bought an actual anti-spyware application (like Giant's AntiSpyware, which is now part of Microsoft) then they would have gotten a working product that is generally regarded as one of the better in the category. The
  • I'd call it "moronware". It's designed to troll for idiot users who believe everything they see and fall for stupid schemes. We can lump the Nigerians into this category too, with their stupid cashier's check and phony inheiritence schemes.

    I've said before, I really have less of a problem with these types of unscrupulous operations. They're like financial darwinism, and anyone stupid enough to fall for them deserves to be separated from their money.

    Ironically, there are lots of other schemes that defra
    • Well, the local TV news where I live (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) could be seen as helping them along, because they ran a story about how important it is to run a spyware cleaner. Although the claim does seem fairly full-of-shit, I can see how a non-savvy user would get tricked very easily. The Nigerians, though, are doing us a public service by seperating fools from their money... the difference between the two is one targets oblivious people (those who just don't know about computers: trust me, there's so
    • mabu nailed it - this is just another "snakeoil" scam that has been around for thousands of years - now just logically moving to another medium.

      In the 1800's the cure-all was sold from the back of a horse pulled wagon. Now it's just grabbing suckers using pop-up advertisement.
    • Yes, yes, little old ladies who don't understand technology deserve to be fleeced out of their savings.

      Civilized societies attempt to protect the weak from the unscrupulous. The fact that a person, for whatever reason, is too weak in comprehension of the way computers work to protect him or her self from a scam like this does not make that person a "moron." It simply means that person doesn't understand how computers work.

      If you wish to invoke Darwinism, remember that that means survival of the fittest, l
      • Grandparent shouldn't forget, Civilized societies don't just attempt to protect the weak from the unscrupulous, they attempt to protect everyone from the unscrupulous. One may know how a computer works, but that doesn't mean they're not going to fall for a tax scam, a photographic equipment scam, or a scam lawsuit. Or an extortion scheme, a protection racket, one of those unscrupulous shipping companies, construction companies, overpriced medicines with generic equivalents...

        There are enough things going
      • I don't disagree with you, but as I said, which apparently escaped you, I think the government's priorities are screwed up. There are a lot worse transgressions going on that cause more damage than a small time internet scammer who probably didn't con more than a few dozen people.

  • Mr. Nice Guys (Score:2, Interesting)

    by caferace ( 442 ) *
    These [ntventures.com] are the guys that made Spyware Assassin. Their other products should be next...
    • Check out http://www.profitinstaller.com/ [profitinstaller.com]! These guys are some slimey goddamn crooks. Just reading it, I feel like I was molested by an Amway salesman.
      • "I'm Convinced! How can I get MY copy of ProfitInstaller?"

        Scroll down fifteen feet or so to see this. Why do all these shyster sites have the same format? Is it a 'secret method' for getting idiots to buy?
    • Go ahead and read the 'sales pitch' on this pig [profitinstaller.com] and try to keep a straight face. Bottom feeders here, folks. i love me some generalized, buzzword-ridden, sales pitches for junks that will:

      Exponentially explode your online sales like you have never imagined!

      Well damn, who could pass that up eh? Shady-tree ops indeed.

      Coupla solid Ben'$ on a bet you will be sorry for doing "biz" with these fools.
      • Yeah, that's who these ho'tards appear to be DNSed from - looks like my profits and penis will be larger "within minutes"!!!!

        Hot Damn! Call the bank, i can cover my overdue loans now!!!!

        w00tz!

      • One of the greatest viral tools for distributing your digital products.

        Wow, I've never seen a spyware maker admit they make a virus before!

        I'm guessing this is supposed to be some sort of reference to viral marketing (word of mouth type thing), but you have to be a moron to include the word "viral" when you are describing a software product

  • Outrageous claims (Score:3, Insightful)

    by v1 ( 525388 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @05:02PM (#11922183) Homepage Journal
    How could even a huckster be so foolish as to make such outrageous, "100%" guarantees? From their (cached) web page:

    Not only will it scan your entire system and remove all spyware programs and files...

    ... which will locate any and all spyware currently residing on your system.

    Once SpywareAssassin is installed, your computer is completely guarded against spyware!

    ...will ensure no spyware is installed without your knowledge.

    twits. But then again it's handy that criminals are stupid by default, it makes them easier to catch.
    • Hey, at least they used the word "ensure" correctly.
  • and the feeling I had - there was something fishy about it. Even if I've cleaned my machine with several freeware utilities, it has reported about 20 potential problems. It has pointed on one file, as infected with virus which was a text file, one of the info files for GNU Emacs. So I have deleted whatever I've downloaded and forgot the whole story - till I saw this news.

  • It's a good thing it did nothing... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MadAnthony02 ( 626886 ) on Saturday March 12, 2005 @08:05PM (#11923164)

    Sure, Spyware Assasian did nothing, but there are even worse pseudo-anitspyware products out there. The article links to this chart [pcworld.com], where PC Mag found spyware removal tools that added additional spyware or did things that aren't real good for Windows, like delete one of the driver folders.

    So it looks like there are even shadier companies out there

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