July 8, 2016

Florida and the Federal Trade Commission announced that a federal court has temporarily shut down an international tech support operation bilking consumers out of millions of dollars. According to the investigation, the scam attempted to scare consumers into believing their computers were compromised by malware or hackers, and then company representatives pretending to be certified by or affiliated with Microsoft and Apple offered to fix the problem for a fee. The court order temporarily shut down the defendants’ operation, froze the defendants’ assets and placed control of those assets with a court-appointed receiver. The complaint filed jointly by Attorney General Bondi’s Office and the FTC alleges that defendants based in Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Canada relied on a combination of deceptive online ads and misleading, high-pressure sales tactics to frighten consumers into spending hundreds of dollars for dubious computer repairs and antivirus software. FL