U.S. court shuts down telemarketer FTC says bilked customers of $120 million

[mahatmakanejeeves]

U.S. court shuts down telemarketer FTC says bilked customers of $120 million

By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON Wed Nov 19, 2014 3:46pm EST

Nov 19 (Reuters) - A federal court has temporarily shut down a U.S. technology telemarketing operation accused of bilking customers of $120 million, while also ordering the freezing of assets of telemarketers and their executives.

The Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it successfully asked a federal court in Florida to shut down Boost Software and its related operation, Vast Tech Support.

Vast's chief executive is Elliot Loewenstern, whom convicted con artist Jordan Belfort described in his best-selling memoir about a Wall Street pump-and-dump operation - "The Wolf of Wall Street" - as a "long-time friend."

The FTC also asked the court to shutter a larger operation, Inbound Call Experts LLC. Altogether the companies scammed tens of thousands of customers out of more than $120 million for tech support they did not need, the commission said.
....

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Ros Krasny and Steve Orlofsky)

Tech support scam shut down after bilking $120 million from consumers

[kickysnana]

1. Not! "Bob Brown" called me 12:37pm CST about my "Windows" from 123-456-7899

Said he was from Microsoft. I did not let him get any more out before I hung up on him.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Please, kind sir, to be checking your registry.

Are there many files in there you do not recognize? Oh, dear; this is worse than I expected.