BleepingComputer.com: US FTC to send rebate checks to Malware Victims

The US Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with two individuals connected to Innovative Marketing, Inc. The settlement calls for Mark and Maurice D'Souza to pay $8,272,962 to the FTC and that they may never again engage in business relating software of any kind, legitimate or not.

The FTC says it will disperse the funds to the 320,000 known victims of Innovative Marketing's scareware rogues. If distributed evenly, this works out to around $25 per victim.

It is unclear which specific rogue variants the settlement covers or if it covers them all. Innovative Marketing, Inc. is known to be behind these rogue security products:

• MS Antivirus
  
• XP Antivirus
  
• Vitae Antivirus
  
• Windows Antivirus
  
• Win Antivirus
  
• Antivirus Pro
  
• Antivirus Action
  
• Antivirus Pro 2009
  
• Antivirus 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 360
  
• AntiMalware GO
  
• Internet Antivirus Plus
  
• System Antivirus
  
• Spyware Guard 2008 and 2009
  
• Spyware Protect 2009
  
• Winweb Security 2008
  
• System Security
  
• Malware Defender 2009
  
• Ultimate Antivirus2008
  
• Vista Antivirus
  
• General Antivirus
  
• AntiSpywareMaster
  
• Antispyware 2008
  
• XP AntiSpyware 2008, 2009, and 2010
  
• Antivirus Vista 2010
  
• Real Antivirus
  
• WinPCDefender
  
• Antivirus XP Pro
  
• Anti-Virus-1
  
• Antivirus Soft
  
• Antispyware Soft
  
• Antivirus System PRO
  
• Antivirus Live
  
• Vista Anti Malware 2010
  
• Internet Security 2010
  
• XP Antivirus Pro
  
• Security Tool
  
• VSCAN7
  
• Total Security.

If you get an e-mail purporting to be a communication from the FTC about your refund, proceed with caution since scammers will undoubtedly try to use this as a pretense.

Further reading:
FTC Announcement
Original Settlement Agreement(PDF)
If you think you might be eligible, contact the FTC here: http://www.ftc.gov/refunds

This post has been edited by Andrew: 13 December 2011 - 09:17 PM

1 down 20 million to go

Herg, Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?? lol

Gr8 to hear that i hope more of those kind of Rules applied over the internet

Why don't the feds take the position that these and other malware authors or promoters are committing theft. Their motivation is to extort money by infecting machines that do not belong to them. Interstate crime is a federal offense. $25.00??? How about Average time required to disinfect X $100.00 per hour. Can't pay?? How about 6 months in jail for every computer they attacked.
If one of the Presidential candidates had a get tough position on internet extortion I bet they would get support from everyone that had to deal with these **$$%%& sons of ((@@$%%**
Have a nice day!

Oh and Happy New Year to ALL.

The vast majority of malware authors will never be brought to justice. Making the punishments for it cruelly harsh won't help.

Hi Andrew
No one should advocate cruelty in punishment, after all it is not a violent crime (Although maybe a lot of folks currently over in the “Am I infected?” forum may disagree)
But it is a crime to deny someone the use of their own property. This is especially true because this is a willful act with the objective of illegal extortion of payment.
If the goal is to actually receive payment rather than steal CC info. then it only takes the will and desire on the part of law enforcement to track them down. Follow the money.
Unfortunately I have the impression that computer crime of this nature is looked at as more of a natural disaster rather than an actual crime.
If a person stole a car in the middle of the night and caused damage they would be required to make restitution and could be sentenced to at least some jail time.
If the person was convicted of multiple instances they would be branded a serial offender and the punishment would be greater.
Computer crime in the form of authoring or promoting malware is even more insidious as once the malware is written and an infection mode established instead of one or 6 people the victim base can be in the thousands or more.
Best Regards
Nawtheasta

The money is nothing for folks who were violated, $25 is not worth the paperwork. $8mm fine seems fair. This is a crime that is not tangible and most folks think, "what sites were you looking at". How is the colaboration to extort/torture internet users not the same drag on society that Guliani shut down in the late 80s? Something less than the death penalty and more than 5 years seems fair if you are going to be an online mobster.

What is the goal of these people. The mob makes money with drugs, numbers, extortion and hijacking products. What do these folks get from me wiping my PC? What if I gave them $50 for thier protection, isn' it a crime at that point? Like the post above says, follow the money. Seems like this type of crime fighting technology could develop in the military (china/russia), then the fed could use it (industrial espionage) and then we could benefit from it.

Rant...I feel better.

Happy New Year