More than 300,000 consumers who were victims of a "scareware" scam will start receiving refunds this week resulting from Federal Trade Commission settlements with Innovative Marketing and other parties involved in the scheme.
Several defendants agreed to surrender more than $8 million total in ill-gotten gains to settle the FTC's charges that they used deceptive ads to trick consumers into believing their computers were infected with viruses or spyware, and then sold them software programs such as Winfixer, Drive Cleaner and XP Antivirus to "fix" their non-existent problem.
Consumers who receive checks must cash them within 60 days. The average amount of the checks will be $20, however the exact amounts will be based on the amount of individual loss. The FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information before redress checks can be cashed.
