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Related: About this forumOffice Depot and Tech Support Firm Will Pay $35 Million to Settle FTC Allegations That They Tricked
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Office Depot and Tech Support Firm Will Pay $35 Million to Settle FTC Allegations That They Tricked Consumers into Buying Costly Computer Repair Services
FOR RELEASE
March 27, 2019
Office Depot, Inc. and a California-based tech support software provider have agreed to pay a total of $35 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the companies tricked customers into buying millions of dollars worth of computer repair and technical services by deceptively claiming their software had found malware symptoms on the customers computers.
Office Depot has agreed to pay $25 million while its software supplier, Support.com, Inc., has agreed to pay $10 million as part of their settlements with the FTC. The FTC intends to use these funds to provide refunds to consumers.
Consumers have a hard enough time protecting their computers from malware, viruses, and other threats, said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. This case should send a strong message to companies that they will face stiff consequences if they use deception to trick consumers into buying costly services they may not need.
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Support.com worked with Office Depot for nearly a decade to sell technical support services at its stores. Office Depot and Support.com used PC Health Check, a software program, as a sales tool to convince consumers to purchase tech repair services from Office Depot and OfficeMax, Inc., which merged in 2013.
The Office Depot companies marketed the program as a free PC check-up or tune-up service to help improve a computers performance and scan for viruses and other security threats. Support.com, which received tens of millions of dollars in revenue from Office Depot, remotely performed the tech repair services once consumers made the purchase.
The FTC alleges that while Office Depot claimed the program detected malware symptoms on consumers computers, the actual results presented to consumers were based entirely on whether consumers answered yes to four questions they were asked at the beginning of the PC Health Check program. These included questions about whether the computer ran slow, received virus warnings, crashed often, or displayed pop-up ads or other problems that prevented the user from browsing the Internet.
The complaint alleges that Office Depot and Support.com configured the PC Health Check Program to report that the scan found malware symptoms or infections whenever consumers answered yes to at least one of these four questions, despite the fact that the scan had no connection to the malware symptoms results. After displaying the results of the scan, the program also displayed a view recommendation button with a detailed description of the tech services consumers were encouraged to purchaseservices that could cost hundreds of dollarsto fix the problems.
-snip-
FOR RELEASE
March 27, 2019
Office Depot, Inc. and a California-based tech support software provider have agreed to pay a total of $35 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the companies tricked customers into buying millions of dollars worth of computer repair and technical services by deceptively claiming their software had found malware symptoms on the customers computers.
Office Depot has agreed to pay $25 million while its software supplier, Support.com, Inc., has agreed to pay $10 million as part of their settlements with the FTC. The FTC intends to use these funds to provide refunds to consumers.
Consumers have a hard enough time protecting their computers from malware, viruses, and other threats, said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. This case should send a strong message to companies that they will face stiff consequences if they use deception to trick consumers into buying costly services they may not need.
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Support.com worked with Office Depot for nearly a decade to sell technical support services at its stores. Office Depot and Support.com used PC Health Check, a software program, as a sales tool to convince consumers to purchase tech repair services from Office Depot and OfficeMax, Inc., which merged in 2013.
The Office Depot companies marketed the program as a free PC check-up or tune-up service to help improve a computers performance and scan for viruses and other security threats. Support.com, which received tens of millions of dollars in revenue from Office Depot, remotely performed the tech repair services once consumers made the purchase.
The FTC alleges that while Office Depot claimed the program detected malware symptoms on consumers computers, the actual results presented to consumers were based entirely on whether consumers answered yes to four questions they were asked at the beginning of the PC Health Check program. These included questions about whether the computer ran slow, received virus warnings, crashed often, or displayed pop-up ads or other problems that prevented the user from browsing the Internet.
The complaint alleges that Office Depot and Support.com configured the PC Health Check Program to report that the scan found malware symptoms or infections whenever consumers answered yes to at least one of these four questions, despite the fact that the scan had no connection to the malware symptoms results. After displaying the results of the scan, the program also displayed a view recommendation button with a detailed description of the tech services consumers were encouraged to purchaseservices that could cost hundreds of dollarsto fix the problems.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/03/office-depot-tech-support-firm-will-pay-35-million-settle-ftc
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Office Depot and Tech Support Firm Will Pay $35 Million to Settle FTC Allegations That They Tricked (Original Post)
Eugene
Mar 2019
OP
SWBTATTReg
(22,112 posts)1. Yikes. How misleading and irresponsible of this company. NT
progree
(10,901 posts)2. K&R for maximum exposure. Note also it includes OfficeMax
Office Depot and Support.com used PC Health Check, a software program, as a sales tool to convince consumers to purchase tech repair services from Office Depot and OfficeMax, Inc., which merged in 2013.