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Fake antivirus dealers accused
By siliconindia
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Monday, 31 May 2010, 20:11 IST
Chicago: These conmen cheated people in more than 60 countries and wheedled them to buy phony antivirus software reports Jamie Anderson of The Money Times. A federal grand jury in Chicago accused these three men for deceiving the public.
The trio made use of some fictional advertising agencies like BurnAds and NetMediaGroup.
They even created a company with the name Innovative Marketing in Belize.
Some of names of the fake antiviruses are 'DriveCleaner', 'ErrorSafe', 'WinFixer', 'Antivirus 2008' and 'VirusRemover 2008',which were claimed to be the products of Innovative Marketing. These would show error messages scareware, and convince the users that their computers are infected.
Even genuine websites were used by these three men to put up their fake advertisements.
Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office said, "These defendants allegedly preyed on innocent computer users, exploiting their fraudulently induced fears for personal gain."
The trio collected money for their fake antivirus in the form of credit cards with the amount ranging from $30 and $70.
Joseph Bochner, the attorney who brought a class-action suit against Jain and his business partners in 2006 said, "What they're doing is charging you money for a program that doesn't work, on false pretenses, and then destroying your computer in the bargain,"
The indictment accused Sundin and Jain each with 24 counts of wire fraud, while Reno has been charged with 12 counts of wire fraud. Each wire fraud carries a sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.