Scareware Fraudster Fined $163 Million

[engine]

I remember seeing those, or similar ads going round. I'm sure they caught out a lot of people.

A woman behind a massive "scareware" scam has been fined $163m (£101m) by US authorities.

Kristy Ross ran an operation that tricked its victims into thinking their computer had been infected with malicious software - and then charged them between $40 and $60 to "fix" it.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been pursuing the case since 2008.Scareware Fraudster Fined $163 Million [bbc.co.uk]

The scam products' names included Winfixer, DriveCleaner, FreeRepair, WinAntivirus, WinAntispyware and System Doctor.

[rzaweb]

Nice scam.

[J_RaD]

They are still going around.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Whay wasn't she jailed?

[engine]

163 million is a significant sum. It gives you an idea of the success of the scam.

It's be even better if the money could be returned to the unfortunate victims.