Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited were fined $26 million one year ago for violating the FTC Act and the Telemarking Sales Rule after using online ads and pop-ups impersonating Windows pop-ups and system warnings saying the consumers' PCs were infected with malware, had performance issues, and required urgent attention to avoid harm. "Since about January 2018, Defendants have marketed deceptively, over the internet and through telemarketing, purported computer repair services to consumers, under the brand names Restoro and Reimage. Besides the $26 million fine, the FTC order also bans the two companies from using deceptive telemarketing and misrepresenting performance or security issues to scare consumers into buying unnecessary computer repair services. The Restoro and Reimage telemarketers requested access to investigators' computers, and they claimed to find more "errors, critical warnings, viruses, or malware" while pointing to Microsoft Windows Event Viewer log entries linked to standard and benign system errors and warnings. As the FTC revealed in March 2024, its investigators also paid for the companies' services to replicate the consumers' experience with Restoro between May and June 2022 and Reimage during July and August 2022. Later this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will start distributing over $25.5 million in refunds to those misled by tech support companies Restoro and Reimage's scare tactics. The FTC will send 736,375 PayPal payments starting March 13 to consumers tricked into paying for unnecessary computer repair services. They were also asked to pay up to $58 for a "PC Repair Plan" and were urged after paying to make "activation" calls to Restore and Reimage telemarketers, who told them the software couldn't fix all the issues.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:00:11 +0000