In a bold move that comes about five years after it should have, the Federal Trade Commission shut down a spyware maker that alledgedly used false scare tactics to get people to buy their products and, at the same time, spread nasty little spyware demons.
The company, named "MaxTheater" sold a product called "Spyware Assassin." To help promote sales, their pop-up ads would open in the middle of your online session to warn, in very bold capital letters, that "Your system is infected with spyware." It was easy to shut down the pop-up ad, but of course it got you thinking.
One person who did click on the ad tells the following story:
"...the program bombarded me with ads and inserted itself on top of my home page like an annoying younger sibling. It took a lot of persistence to remove all the cookies, files, and other general nonsense from the system. I would think the system was clean, and I'd happily surf for a couple of weeks and then -- boom! The unwanted Web page would show up again as my home page. It's finally gone (I think), but certainly not forgotten.
According to the FTC, MaxTheater would produce evidence of spyware even on systems that were clean, and even more galling, its $30 program did not actually remove any spyware. A U.S. court has ordered MaxTheater to suspend its activities until a court hearing next week. The court could compel the company to give back all the money it made from selling Spyware Assassin, but I doubt that will happen.
It would have been nice if the FTC folks would have done this a lot sooner...or at least take the bull by the horns and do it more often from now on.
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