Gregg Keizer
Apr 19, 2006
TechWeb.com
In January, both Microsoft Corp. and Attorney General Rob McKenna filed lawsuits against Secure Computer of White Plains, N.Y. for allegedly selling the bogus anti-spyware program Spyware Cleaner. Three men were also charged with advertising the software: Zhijian Chen, of Portland, Ore.; Seth Traub, of Portsmouth, N.H.; and Manoj Kumar, from Maharashtra, India.
Chen is the first to be penalized in the broader case, and also holds the dubious honor of being the first defendant nailed by Washington state’s 2005 Computer Spyware Act.
After admitting to breaking the 2005 law, as well as the state’s Consumer Protection Act, Chen was told to pay $84,000 in fines and restitution for promoting Spyware Cleaner.
itworld.com
Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau
1/25/06
Microsoft Corp. and the Washington state attorney general have filed lawsuits against antispyware software vendor Secure Computer LLC, alleging that the White Plains, New York, company’s Spyware Cleaner software not only fails to remove spyware as advertised, but makes changes to users’ computers that make them less secure. The attorney general’s lawsuit is the state’s first to be filed under Washington’s 2005 Computer Spyware Act.
The state’s lawsuit also names Secure Computer President Paul E. Burke and Web domain owner Gary T. Preston, both of New York state, as defendants. It further charges Zhijian Chen, of Portland, Oregon, Seth Traub, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Manoj Kumar, of Maharashtra, India, in connection with the advertising of the product.
Spyware Cleaner has been sold since about 2004 and the product has been marketed via “spam, pop-up ads and deceptive hyperlinks,” offering a free spyware scan, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. These scans inevitably detected spyware, even when none was present and then instructed users to buy Spyware Cleaner. Once customers had paid the US$49.95 purchase price, the software would then erase the computer’s hosts file, which can used by the browser to block unwanted Web sites.
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