McKenna
SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - A California company has settled "likejacking" allegations brought by Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna.
On Monday, Adscend Media agreed to stop the practice, which McKenna says resulted in Facebook users giving it personal information. The company also must pay $100,000 in attorneys fees.
The settlement comes five months after McKenna and Facebook sued Jeremy Bash and Fehzan Ali, the owners of the company.
"Today's settlement puts a stop to Adscend's 'likejacking' and other misleading tactics that led Facebook users to fork over personal information or buy subscription services from sites that appeared to be recommended by friends," McKenna said.
McKenna says the companies initiated posts to Facebook pages that appeared to offer visitors an opportunity to view scandalous or provocative content. Instead, users had to go through a series of steps that led them to commercial websites, he added.
The alleged "likejacking" scheme involved tricking Facebook users to click the "like" button and spreading sales pitches to friends.
Facebook's case against the company was settled last week.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.