Originally published February 23 2006
Microsoft files lawsuit under Computer Spyware Act
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Both Microsoft and the Washington state attorney general have filed separate lawsuits against Secure Computer for allegedly selling a bogus anti-spyware product. Microsoft alleges that the defendants used its trademarks.
Microsoft Corp. and the Washington state attorney general on Wednesday said they filed separate lawsuits against a company that allegedly sold and marketed a bogus anti-spyware product.
The suits against Secure Computer LLC, based in White Plains, N.Y., were the first filed under Washington state's 2005 Computer Spyware Act, which prohibits bogus claims that software available for download is necessary for security reasons.
It also makes illegal secretly modifying a computer's security settings.
The act carries a penalty of $100,000 per violation.
The company is accused of marketing software that fraudulently claimed to remove spyware, when in fact it made computers more susceptible to attacks.
Secure Computer owned several Web sites for marketing and downloading the software, Myspywarecleaner.com, Myerrorfixer.com and Checkforspyware.com.
When a computer user visited a site or clicked on a link in an email, a pop-up would tell the person that his computer could be infected with spyware and offered a free scan, which always claimed to find spyware even when none existed, and recommended downloading the bogus software, prosecutors say.
Spyware Cleaner, which sold for $49.95, appeared incapable of finding spyware and altered a computer's registry, making it more susceptible to spyware attacks.
The Attorney General's Office claimed consumers were bilked nationwide of millions of dollars.
The state's suit alleges violation of its spyware act, as well as the federal CAN-SPAM Act, the state Commercial Electronic Mail Act and the state Consumer Protection Act.
The Microsoft and Washington state suits, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, name as defendants Secure Computer and company president Paul E. Burke of New York.
Microsoft alleged that the defendants in its suit used its trademarks in advertisements to falsely suggest that the Redmond, Wash., software maker sponsored or approved of the product.
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