Class Action

Software Creators Sued For Scare Tactics

By classlawblog

According to Detroit Free Press, the Washington State Attorney General is suing the creator/owner of Registry Cleaner XP for false claims used to trick people into purchasing the program. The State?s complaint alleges that the defendant sent pop-up messages resembling system warnings to consumers? personal computers. The messages read ?CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE! ? REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED? and instructed users to visit a website to download Registry Cleaner XP. Upon running a free computer scan the users were informed of ?critical problems? and were told to pay $39.95 to repair these problems. These ?critical problems? have been called ?dubious? by Paula Selis, senior counsel for the Attorney General?s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit.

Microsoft is also suing the creator of Registry Cleaner XP as well as the creators/owners of similar programs, such as: ?Antivirus 2009, Malwarecore, WinDefender, WinSpywareProtect and XPDefender.” According to a senior attorney for Microsoft’s Internet safety enforcement team, the programs themselves do not cause serious harm to the computer, but there is a concern ?about vendors collecting personal details and credit card numbers from consumers and then abusing that information.?

Full post as published by ClassLawBlog.com on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).