Alleged Spyware Operation Said to Close
Stanford Wallace and his two companies will shut off their Internet spyware computer programs and stop sending related pop-up advertisements until a federal lawsuit is resolved, reported the King County Journal.
A Federal Trade Commission suit in October accused Wallace, dubbed the “King of Spam,” and his companies of infecting computers with spyware that flooded users with advertising, then selling malfunctioning $30 programs to fix the problem.
This is the first U.S. lawsuit against spyware developers, according to the FTC.
The agreement, approved by U.S. District Judge Joseph DiClerico in Concord, NH last month, requires Wallace and his SmartBot.net Inc. and Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. to disable any software installed without a computer user’s authorization.
The accord also requires Wallace and the companies to advertise only to people who direct computers to the companies’ Web sites, court records showed.
Spyware is software that secretly installs itself on a computer and monitors users’ actions. It can be used to send gathered data to the program’s developers or third parties.
Ralph Jacobs, Wallace’s lawyer, declined comment.
