WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission announced June 7 that it has obtained settlements with a group of defendants based in St. Louis who allegedly tricked consumers into buying unnecessary technical support devices by targeting them with deceptive pop-up ads.
The FTC announced the settlements as part of its effort to crack down on tech support scams.
“When tech support scams pop up, the FTC will take action,” said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “[These] settlements, along with the agency’s recent Operation Tech Trap actions, underscore the FTC’s commitment to protecting consumers from tech support scams.”
According to allegations, the defendants would place false ads targeting consumers. These pop-ups told consumers their computer was infected with a virus. The ads would purport to come from legitimate companies like Apple or Microsoft and would tell consumers to call a helpline. When consumers called, they were allegedly deceived into buying unnecessary software.
The defendants will turn over assets worth roughly $1 million. The case involved Global Access Technical Support LLC (also doing business as Global SConnect, Yubdata Tech and Technolive), Source Pundit LLC (also doing business as OneSource Tech Support), Helios Digital Media LLC, Rajiv Chhatwal, Rupinder Kaur and Harinder Singh.