Company Agrees to Stop Deceptive Spyware Marketing Practices

A company that falsely claimed to have scanned consumers’ computers and detected spyware when, in fact, no scanning occurred, has been barred from making such false claims in the future.

Trustsoft, Inc., which does business as Swanksoft, SpyKiller and SpyKiller.com agreed to a preliminary injunction that bars the Texas company from engaging in deceptive advertising in the future. The injunction was obtained by the Federal Trade Commission in Houston.

In the complaint and a stipulated preliminary injunction order, the FTC alleged that the company since at least 2003 marketed and sold spyware removal software products under the names SpyKiller2003, SpyKiller 2004 and SpyKiller2005. The software was to scan a consumers computer, identify all of the spyware on it and then remove the spyware. As part of its marketing, the company used pop-ups, banner ads and commercial email that when opened claimed that it had scanned the computer and “detected” that spyware resided on the computer. However, in many cases, the FTC said, the representations were made “even when no scan or examination has taken place.” The company also offered to scan a computer for spyware for free but required the purchase of the SpyKiller program to remove the spyware. The FTC noted that in some instances when the scan was running it would indicate that spyware had been detected when it had not. In addition, the company’s software was programmed so that if spyware were detected “the only level assigned to each reported spyware program detected by SpyKiller is SEVERE.”

In addition, the FTC charged the company with sending unsolicited commercial emails which not only contained deceptive information but also violated the CAN-SPAM Act by failing to identify themselves as advertising, used false “from” lines, gave no valid postal addresses and failed to provide consumers with notice of and the ability to “opt-out” of receiving the emails. The order was entered on June 14, 2005.

Federal Trade Commission v. Trustsoft, Inc. d/b/a Swanksoft and SpyKiller, Danilo Ladendorf, individually, and as an officer of Trustsoft, Inc., U.S. Dist. Court, Southern District, Houston, Texas No. H05-1905.