An alleged popup spam scam which exploited a little-used Windows Messenger Service tool has been thrown a slam by the Federal Trade Commission, which got a court to hand down a temporary restraining order against a San Diego company and two of its key officers.
The FTC said the alleged scam involved barraging computer users with repeated Windows Messenger Service popups, mostly advertising popup-blocking software at $25 to $30, marketed from as many as 25 Websites, and turning up as often as every ten minutes. The FTC also said the popups could hit computer screens even when the users were not on the Internet.
“This is nothing more than a high-tech version of a classic scam,” said FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Howard Beales, announcing the temporary restraining order November 6. “The defendants created the problem that they proposed to solve – for a fee. Their pop-up spam wasted computer users’ time and caused them needless frustration.”
D Squared Solutions of San Diego and two officers, Anish Dhingra and Jeffrey Davis, were named in the temporary restraining order. And the company isn't exactly a stranger to that cyberspace community which tracks spammers at least as religiously as the spammers operate.
According to PopUpSpamSucks.com, Dhingra also runs a D Squared operation called BroadcastMarketer.com that sells popup spam tools, and has run into previous trouble with America Online. According to the New York Times in May, AOL was compelled to make technical changes to block its networks from popup spam, citing such as BroadcastMarketer.com as having created programs exploiting "vulnerabilities" in Windows that let spammers flood random Web addresses. "Anish Dhingra, president of BroadcastMarketer," OnlineJournalism.com had said at the time, "said the company's next version will have a workaround for AOL."
The FTC accuses D Squared, Dhingra, and Davis of co-opting a network administration feature in Windows, Messenger Service, which many Windows users may not be aware they can disengage. The tool is automatically set "on", but it can be overridden by consumers on individual computers, the FTC said.
Indeed, in 2002, Dhingra reportedly said D Squared or BroadcastMarketer didn't consider the popups spam because users could reconfigure Windows Messenger to reject the popups. But the FTC said they didn't exactly go out of their way to discourage consumers from thinking they couldn't stop the invasion.
"The defendants placed their pop-up ads near the center of users’ computer screens, blocking the user’s work," the FTC said. "The ads appeared as long as the users were connected to the Internet, leading to particular trouble for users with DSL lines or cable modems who were continually on the Web."
The FTC also charges D Squared, Dhingra, and Davis of selling or licensing their pop-up spamming software to others, offering programs allowing buyers to send pop-ups to an estimated 135,000 Web addresses an hour.
D Squared, Dhingra, and Davis are accused on unfair practices by "interfering with consumers’ use of their computers, specifically by causing a stream of multiple, unwanted Windows Messenger Service pop-ups to appear on their computer screens, even when the consumers are not using their Internet browsers," the FTC said.
"(We contend) the practice is unfair because it is likely to cause substantial consumer injury, including the loss of data, reduced work productivity, and the temporary freezing of the consumer’s computer screen," the agency continued. "Further, the defendants encouraged consumers to think that they could not easily stop the barrage of pop ups. The FTC contends that these costs are not balanced by any benefits to consumers or competition."
An attempt to contact D Squared Solutions by AVN.com proved fruitless November 6. No listed telephone contact was available for either the company or Dhingra and Davis. Several of its Websites known to the FTC either refused connections, barred access on several servers, or – in the case of ByeByeAds.com, a page selling pop-up stopping software for $24.95 – showed an e-mail address for technical support but no further contact information.
Microsoft was prompted to begin advising Windows users on how to turn off the Windows Messenger tool to block the popups following complaints in October, and the company said it would produce software updates in the first half of 2004 to shut off Messenger.
