OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced April 19 that iYogi’s parent company in India will pay $6.3 million after allegations iYogi conducted a massive tech support scam.
“This lawsuit shut down a major international tech support scammer so they are no longer able to deceive Washingtonians,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Our goal was to send a message to tech support scammers that my office will hold them accountable. This resolution sends that message loud and clear.”
iYogi allegedly duped consumers into thinking it was part of Microsoft, Apple or other major companies in order to gain access to their computers. Once iYogi gained access, it would purportedly misidentify “infected files” on consumer computers. The company would then urge consumers to pay for its software to fight the infections, Ferguson’s office said.
“We welcome the court’s decision and applaud the work of the Washington state attorney general’s office to protect consumers from the growing problem of tech support fraud,” Courtney Gregoire, assistant general counsel with Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, said in a statement. “Since 2015 Microsoft’s digital crimes unit has received more than 300,000 customer reports about tech support scams carried out by fraudsters claiming to be from a reputable tech company. We are proud to have partnered with local authorities to help bring down iYogi’s fraudulent operations, and to have played a part in ending the widespread consumer harm caused by iYogi.”