March 14, 2024 at 12:45PM
Restoro and Reimage will pay $26 million to settle charges for using scare tactics to deceive customers into buying unnecessary computer repair services. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission imposed the fine for violating the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The proposed FTC order also bans them from engaging in deceptive telemarketing practices.
Based on the meeting notes, it seems that Restoro and Reimage were fined $26 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for using scare tactics and deceptive marketing to trick customers into purchasing unnecessary computer repair services. The companies employed tactics such as using online ads and pop-ups impersonating Microsoft Windows pop-ups to claim that consumers’ computers were infected with malware and needed urgent attention. Furthermore, FTC investigators found that the purchased software and services had no performance or security issues, yet telemarketers continued to misrepresent issues and urge consumers to purchase repair services. In response to these violations, the proposed FTC order seeks to ban Restoro and Reimage from engaging in deceptive telemarketing and misrepresenting security or performance issues on consumers’ devices. This order is currently awaiting federal court approval. Additionally, the FTC has taken action against other companies this year, including banning Avast from selling browsing data, ordering Intuit to stop marketing “free” software that isn’t free, and banning data brokers from selling Americans’ raw location data.