FTC Cracking Down on Pop-Up Scams

Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:04PM EDT

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"Your computer is infected with spyware! Clean?"

You've undoubtedly seen these ads pop up during your web browsing experience. Click OK (as I know from your emails that many of you have done) and you're actually installing spyware, not removing it. The scam comes a few days later, when you're asked to pay a bunch of money in order to remove "additional" infections... the ones you just installed.

Even the most legitimate sites online tend to carry ads like this from time to time, which makes them one of the most nefarious web scams running. More typical spyware pop-ups are relegated to the less respectable parts of the web, but these "anti-spyware" scams are everywhere.

The latest case involves a few websites that let users install a program to let them download movies and TV content from the web. But along with that came, you guessed it, a spyware app that demanded $99 in extortion money in order to be uninstalled, with no easy way around it.

And now the feds have taken notice, requiring the companies responsible to reimburse consumers over half a million dollars and forbidding such features in the future. That's good news... but spyware extortion schemes like this come in infinite varieties, and the FTC can't possibly kill off all of them. Be wary of clicking "OK" on any pop-up, and be sure to read the fine print when an application you download seems a little too good to be true.

LINK: Extortion or just a "negative option feature"? FTC cracks down on deceptive pop-ups

Comments on FTC Cracking Down on Pop-Up Scams

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  • 1 Posted by m_leinoff on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    Here's my solution: Don't click on popups. Ever. No matter what they say. Just don't do it, not now, not ever, 100% of the time.

  • 2 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    Good point m_lenioff: I meant to include this in the original post. Some people get tripped up even trying to close pop-up windows. Many include a phony "X" button in the top right; you click it and you're actually downloading software, not closing the pop-up. The most reliable way to close a popup is to right-click the item in the task bar and select close. If that doesn't work, I usually just quit my browser altogether and restart it. However, this is going to be harder and harder to follow for many people since Vista inundates you with so many popups as part of the OS. Good luck out there...

  • 3 Posted by robinsjv on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    i think they are called spam bombs , when pop ups like this appear while browsing asking you to register for free goodies or porn and then they start messing with you system. I found that pop up blockers are quite effective, not entirely, but they manage to keep away a majority of these pop ups. Plus, these pop ups are move dominant in message boards and forums, where the owner has a deal with pop up companies so that the owner makes money through them, or atleast these pop ups helps him in paying for the site.

  • 4 Posted by lamseymour on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    as a website owner, I can tell you that you get offered a lot of money to put these popups on your site.

  • 5 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    My dad installed a ware once on my computer that kept asking for me to spend $60 on a spyware cleaner... after a half hour of being bombarded with these messages, I shut down the PC, rebooted in safe mode, and ran a adware/spyware scan. that got everything off. and for good measure I disabled by incoming connection to the internet and ran it again.

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