Claims 390,000 residents lost $179 million in California alone.
In the latest fight back against tech support scammers, Microsoft has sued firms in California and Florida complaining of trademark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, and deceptive trading practices.
This comes after
similar FTC action against scammers in Florida.
In its complaint, Microsoft notes that tech support scamming is a big money-maker. It estimates that it costs Americans $1.5 billion a year, with $179 million from 390,000 victims being taken in California alone. Over a six month period this year, the company also received some 65,000 complaints relating to the scams.
Microsoft's investigation tells a story that has
become familiar. The company's investigators were told that their PCs were plagued with issues after performing bogus diagnostics, and then charged large sums to repair those problems. The support scammers often use remote control software to snoop around their victims' PCs, with one scammer even installing password sniffing software while "fixing" a problem-free PC.
