MaximumPC 2007 07

watch dodogg MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR dog

Got a bone to pick with a vendor? Been spiked by a fly-by-night

operation? Sic the Dog on them by writing watchdog@maxi-

mumpc.com. The Dog promises to answer as many letters as

possible, but only has four paws to work with.

Our consumer advocate investigates...

PThe Web of WinFixer PLast.fm Keeps

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Lincoln, watchdog of the month

16

THE WINFIX IS IN

Have you ever heard of http://www.virussw.com? I had a

charge from them pop up on my bank account today.

I have never heard of the company and don’t know

how they were able to charge my account. The web-

site screams scam. I called the number on the site

and waited to talk to someone. After being told the

whole time that I would speak to a person, I could only

leave a message. I am working with my bank on this

but was hoping you had some info about them.

— Michael

Michael, you did the right thing by following your

instincts and contacting your bank about the

questionable charges. Many people wait until it’s

too late to dispute fraudulent charges.

The Dog started his investigation by simply

calling the company. After two minutes on hold,

the Dog was transferred to a customer service

rep who would not tell the Dog her name or

even the name of the company she was work-

ing for. When the Dog asked her if she thought

that was suspicious, she would not respond

and instead transferred the Dog to “Jennifer’s”

voice mail. No surprise, “Jennifer” did not

return the Dog’s call.

A check of the domains registered to

Virussw.com’s IP address (66.244.254.64)

turned up several other websites the Dog has

written about, including WinAntivirus.com and

WinFixer.com. The Dog was also able to con-

nect Virussw.com to WinFixer by searching

for Virussw.com’s toll-free support number.

WinAntivirusPro.com, DriverCleaner.com,

ErrorSafe.com, and WinFixer, amazingly, have

also used that number.

In the January 2006 issue of Maximum PC,

the Dog warned readers away from these appli-

cations, which clearly have a checkered his-

tory and have been rated as malware. Google’s

Stopbadware.org. has since banned people

from visiting the WinFixer 2005 and 2006 site

if they find the URL via Google’s search engine.

WinFixer popups have plagued

not only PC users. Reports

on the Internet indicate the

popups that goad people into

visiting WinFixer’s site have

also impacted Mac and Linux

Firefox users.

So, who the hell is behind

these terrible programs?

Menlo Park, CA, attorney

Joseph M. Bochner thinks

he may have the answer.

Bochner filed a class-action

suit on behalf of Beatrice

Ochoa, who claims WinFixer

did a number on her PC after

she paid the company $

for the program. The suit,

filed in Santa Clara Superior

Court, alleges that WinFixer,

ErrorSafe, WinAntivirus, and

WinAntispyware are “fraud-

ware” and use messages to

trick users into installing the

packages on their PCs. The suit says: “These

representations are fraudulent (and very often

flatly false) in that Defendants have designed

and intended the Fraudware to report that the

host computer is infected regardless of the

truth. The Fraudware then misrepresents that

the victim may repair the purported problem

by paying money to Defendants. Victims who

comply are instructed to enter their credit card

information and to transmit it over the Internet,

whereupon Defendants charge the victims from

$29.95 to $59.95, depending on the particular

Fraudware title involved.”

Bochner has taken his suit one step beyond

what others have been able to achieve by actu-

ally naming two of the defendants, Marc J. Cohen

of Florida and James Reno, the president of

Ohio-based ByteHosting. During his investiga-

tion of WinFixer, Bochner said he ran across an

unsecured database that

contained information on

people who purchased the

program around the world.

Bochner estimates sales of

WinFixer to be in excess of

2,300 a day. If the average cost were just $30 per

customer, the company’s yearly take would be

greater than $25 million.

Bochner, however, is dismayed by the lack

of interest shown by law enforcement and large

companies. Symantec, Bochner said, sued Reno

and ByteHosting, and the deposition in the case

made it clear that the antivirus company had

been pursuing WinAntivirus, which was appar-

ently using the familiar yellow colors of Norton.

Bochner said Symantec had ByteHosting in its

sights, but oddly, never followed up on it.

“Symantec clearly had a chance to shut

[these WinFixer] guys down,” Bochner said,

“but didn’t for some unfathomable reason.”

Bochner said he has also had very little luck

convincing any law enforcement agencies

to take a hard look at the folks, despite the

complaints. Regardless, he said the suit will

continue. More information about the suit is

available at http://fixwinfixer.wordpress.com.

For what it’s worth, the Dog was unable to get

a comment from Cohen’s attorney or any of

the other parties named in the suit. The Dog

will keep a close eye on this one and report

MAXIMUMPC july 2007

Search the web for Virussw.com’s phone number and

you’ll find that many other questionable companies also

use it.

Our consumer advocate investigates...

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