FTC goes after Spyware...

[sarettah]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19017

FTC swoops on spyware bloke

He infects your computer and then charges you to remove it
By Nick Farrell: Monday 11 October 2004, 17:02

SPYWARE COMPANY executive Sanford Wallace and his two companies, Seismic Entertainment Productions and SmartBot.Net will be the first to have the dubious honour of being charged by the FTC.

A Washington consumer group, the Centre for Democracy and Technology told the FTC that WallaceWare hijacks web browsers, causes CD-ROM trays to mysteriously slide open and slows down computers or causes them to cease working altogether. It all exploits a hole in Vole’s Internet Explorer and users unwittingly download the software when they click on loaded banner adds.

After their machine goes mad they get a lot of "pop ups telling them to buy programs called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter to clean up the mess from er Seismic Entertainment Productions or SmartBot.Net

The US Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to shut down an operation that it said disables users' computers in an attempt to bully them into buying anti-spyware products.

Although in the last couple of weeks the government has voted in some tough new spyware laws, Wallace has been charged under an age old deceptive business law. The FTC have asked the court to shut down Wallace's operations and force him to return any cash he has made.

http://www.bntnews.com/technology000002.htm