WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced charges this week against a group of defendants that commonly operated under the name Global Access Technical Support.
The FTC alleges the operators of Global Access Technical Support used deceptive pop-up internet ads to scare thousands of consumers into paying for unnecessary technical support.
According to the FTC, the defendants violated the FTC Act by using affiliate marketers to place pop-up ads on consumers’ computers, deceiving them into believing the ads came from Apple, Microsoft, or other legitimate tech companies.
These ads allegedly warned consumers about viruses on their computers and asked them to call a toll-free number for help. Once connected to the number, telemarketers in India would attempt to convince them to spend anywhere from $200 to $400 for repair services that were effectively useless, the FTC charges.
The defendants in the case are Global Access Technical Support, LLC (also doing business as Global S Connect, Yubdata Tech and Technolive), Global sMind LLC (also doing business as Global S Connect), Source Pundit LLC (also doing business as OneSource Tech Support), Helios Digital Media LLC, VGlobal ITES Pvt. Ltd., Rajiv Chhatwal, Rupinder Kaur and Neeraj Dubey.