Kudos to the attorney general’s office in Washington State for taking on Registry Cleaner XP, which the AG’s office describes as "scareware." From the press release:
The Attorney General’s Office filed its latest case today in King County Superior Court against the marketers of a program called Registry Cleaner XP.
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According to the state’s complaint, the defendants sent incessant pop-ups resembling system warnings to consumers’ personal computers. The messages read “CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE! – REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED,” and instructed users to visit a Web site to download Registry Cleaner XP.
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“Consumers who visited the Web site were offered a free scan to check their computer – but the program found ‘critical’ errors every time,” said Senior Counsel Paula Selis, who leads the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit. “Users were then told to pay $39.95 to repair these dubious problems.”
I hope that cases like this have a deterrent effect against software producers who use deceptive methods to sell software.
Hat tip to Sandi at Spyware Sucks.
