WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission announced Oct. 26 that the operators of two tech support scams will settle FTC charges of duping consumers into purchasing unnecessary repairs for their supposedly virus-infected computers.
According to the FTC, defendants would contact consumers via phone calls or display advertisements on their computers. The defendants would make consumers believe their computers had been harmed by malware or viruses. To fix the supposed issue, the consumers could purchase various computer repair services or anti-virus plans. The viruses were allegedly faked and the repairs unnecessary.
The settlements come as part of Operation Tech Trap, an FTC initiative to crack down against tech support scams.
The first settlement was with Madhu Sethi and Ila Sethi, who did business as Troth Solutions. The named corporate defendants in the case were Trothsolutions Inc., Trothsolutions LLC, Quickkonto LLC, Crazy Bee Man of Palm Beach Inc., eDoorways International Corp., and Airoways LLC. A default judgment of $2 million will be mostly suspended.
The second settlement was with Universal Network Solutions LLC and Rajinder Singh.
The FTC voted 2-0 to approve the stipulated final orders in both cases. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Southern Division entered the order involving Madhu Sethi and Ila Sethi. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado entered the proposed order involving Universal Network Solutions and Singh.