Microsoft gives scareware scammers the Washington willies

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 01 October 2008 15:38

IT Policy - Regulation

The pop-up marketing, disguised as system messages, included such warnings as "CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE! – REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED" along with instructions to visit a website where they could download the solution to the non-existent problem.

That solution being, of course, Registry Cleaner XP. The campaign exploited something known as the Windows Messenger Service (not to be confused with Instant Messaging) which enables system admins to send network messages to users.

As the head of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit, Paula Selis, says "Consumers who visited the Web site were offered a free scan to check their computer – but the program found 'critical' errors every time. Users were then told to pay USD $39.95 to repair these dubious problems."

With 50 percent of customer support calls being related to spyware in some way, according to Microsoft, you can understand why it is taking this seriously.

Richard Boscovich, Senior Attorney for Microsoft's Internet Safety Enforcement Team insists that Microsoft is "helping to protect consumers from online threats" and maintains that "we can work to champion tougher laws, greater public awareness and, ultimately, stronger protections for online consumers."

Which all sounds great, and be in no doubt that I am all for using state legislature like this to attack those who prey upon the vulnerable computer user. However, there is one small problem as I see it.

These new filings bring the total number of civil spyware actions brought by Microsoft in Washington alone, under the Computer Spyware Act, to 17.

Indeed, back in 2006 Microsoft and the Attorney General each brought lawsuits against the same group of defendants. This resulted in what the Attorney General's office refers to as "permanent injunctions and settlements."

Which makes you wonder if they were permanent and the matter settled just why the same defendants are back before the beak on the same charges in the same state just two years later...