{"id":28747,"date":"2024-07-14T08:21:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=28747"},"modified":"2024-07-14T08:25:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T12:25:55","slug":"restoro-and-reimage-sued-for-26-million-see-we-told-you-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/restoro-and-reimage-sued-for-26-million-see-we-told-you-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoro and Reimage Sued for $26 Million &#8211; See? We told you so!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Restoro and Reimage Sued for $26 Million &#8211; See? We told you so!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">We&#8217;ve been warning people about Restoro, Reimage, and all other one-click fixers for a long time. There are many other one-click fixers out there that have not been sued and new ones seem to pop up every day. You&#8217;ll see them advertised on television and the web. They all have one common theme: All claim to fix your computer with a click. Just buy the program, run it, and your all Windows troubles are fixed. Just like that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">PT Barnum, the famous circus mogul is rumored to have said, &#8220;There&#8217;s a sucker born every minute&#8221;. We don&#8217;t want any of you to be a sucker and fall for these one-click fix programs. So we try to keep you updated and warn you about all one-click fixers, of which Restoro and Reimage are just two. As we always say &#8211; if there were such a thing as a one-click fixer, Microsoft would pay billions to buy it and include it with Windows. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Don&#8217;t waste your hard-earned money on pie-in-the-sky, one-click fixers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Nick sent us the following article (Thanks, Nick!) from the Federal Trade Commission. We hope you will take the time to read it.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h1 class=\"node-title\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Tech Support Firms Will Pay $26 Million to Settle FTC Charges That They Deceived Consumers into Buying Repair Services<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-string field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"field__item\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">FTC says firms bilked consumers, including older consumers, by falsely claiming consumers\u2019 computers had security and performance problems<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Two tech support companies will pay $26 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they bilked tens of millions of dollars from consumers, particularly older consumers, by duping them into buying computer repair services in violation of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/1-ComplaintagainstRestoro.pdf\">complaint filed in federal court<\/a>, the FTC charged that Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited, both based in Cyprus, tricked consumers into signing up for computer repair services through deceptive marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThese companies used scare tactics and\u00a0lies about threats to consumers\u2019 personal computers to bilk consumers, particularly older consumers, out of tens of millions of dollars,\u201d said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection. \u201cWe have taken decisive action to halt this scheme and return money to consumers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Consumers were lured or alarmed by fake Microsoft Windows pop-ups, which stated that the consumers\u2019 computer or system was infected with viruses and urged consumers to \u201cscan\u201d their computers \u201cTo avoid more damage.\u201d The FTC charges that, regardless of the actual health of the consumers\u2019 computers, the companies\u2019 scans typically identified purported serious issues that needed immediate attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure role=\"group\">\n<article class=\"align-center media media--type-image media--view-mode-sm\">\n<div class=\"media__content\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-visually_hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__label usa-sr-only\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2024\/ftc.png\" alt=\"Restoro &amp; Reimage Sued for $26 million - Don't fall for one-click fixers. Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"600\" height=\"431\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Above: <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Screenshot of a fake Microsoft Windows pop-up.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Following the scans, the companies urged consumers to purchase its software online to \u201cfix\u201d the alleged problems or remove alleged viruses and malware, according to the complaint. The software\u2019s cost typically ranged from $27 to $58.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">After purchasing the software, consumers were provided a number to call to \u201cactivate\u201d the software. Thereafter, Restoro and Reimage telemarketers attempted to sell additional services by accessing consumers\u2019 computers and misrepresenting that routine computer errors and messages were signs of malware, viruses or other problems. The companies\u2019 telemarketers routinely claimed that the \u201cproblems\u201d on consumers\u2019 computers could not be fixed with the newly purchased software alone and required help from a Restoro or Reimage technician, which cost hundreds of dollars more, according to the complaint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/Restoro.SignedOrder.pdf\">signed order<\/a>, Restoro and Reimage are required to pay $26 million, which the FTC intends to use to provide redress to deceived consumers. The order also prohibits Restoro and Reimage from misrepresenting security or performance issues or any other material issues related to the sale, marketing or distribution of any product or service, and from engaging in deceptive telemarketing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The Commission voted 3-0 to authorize the staff to file the complaint and stipulated final order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The FTC filed the complaint and stipulated orderin the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia&#8230;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/news\/press-releases\/2024\/03\/tech-support-firms-will-pay-26-million-settle-ftc-charges-they-deceived-consumers-buying-repair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the entire article here.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Restoro and Reimage Sued for $26 Million &#8211; See? We told you so! We&#8217;ve been warning people about Restoro, Reimage, and all other one-click fixers for a long time. There are many other one-click fixers out there that have not been sued and new ones seem to pop up every day. You&#8217;ll see them advertised on television\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/restoro-and-reimage-sued-for-26-million-see-we-told-you-so\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1678,1680,4504,4353,4221,3602],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28747"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28751,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28747\/revisions\/28751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}