By John Leyden for The
Register.
This article has been reproduced with permission.
Seth Traub, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, paid the modest legal
costs and attorneys' fees to settle a lawsuit brought by the State
of Washington over charges that he punted bogus warnings to
persuade surfers to buy deceptively marketed software.
Traub promoted Secure Computer's Spyware Cleaner program using
Google AdWords. The use of a hyperlink marked "Microsoft
AntiSpyware" meant these ads appeared prominently when surfers
searched for Microsoft's line of anti-spyware products. But users
who clicked on this wound up on Secure Computer's site rather than
Microsoft's.
An investigation found that an initial "free" scan always
detected spyware on a user's computer, even if none existed. The
full fat version of Spyware Cleaner, which was sold for $49.95,
failed to detect most forms of spyware on deliberately infected
computers. It also erased files used to keep a record of blocked
programs. Traub received three-quarters of the income from sales of
Spyware Cleaner he generated.
"The Attorney General's Office alleges that Seth Traub
deceptively represented that Spyware Cleaner is a Microsoft product
or sanctioned by Microsoft," Washington State Attorney General Rob
McKenna said. "His ad also misrepresented that the program would
remove all spyware. In fact, our investigation found that Spyware
Cleaner not only failed to detect most spyware on an infected
computer, it left that computer more vulnerable to attacks."
Traub is the third defendant to settle over the first lawsuit
brought under Washington State's computer spyware act. The suit
alleges that Secure Computer has used deceptive marketing practices
(pop-up ads, deceptive hyperlinks and spam emails) to promote
Spyware Cleaner since at least 2004.
Another defendant, Zhijian Chen, of Portland, Oregon, admitted
breaching Washington's Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection
Act in an April settlement. He was ordered to pay $84,000 in fines
and customer restitution after been held liable for promoting
Spyware Cleaner through Net Send messages sent to PCs that
allegedly mimicked system warnings.
Gary T Preston, who is listed as the owner of Secure Computer's
web domains, paid $7,200 in legal costs and attorneys' fees to
settle charges that his name was used as an alias in business
dealings by Secure Computer.
The lawsuit remains ongoing against defendants Secure Computer
LLC, of White Plains, New York; company president Paul E Burke and
Manoj Kumar, of Maharashtra, India, a Spyware Cleaner advertising
affiliate.
© The Register
2006
