Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s High-Tech Unit...
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s High-Tech Unit announced a $97,000 settlement with Arizona-based spyware removal software company ZookaWare over claims that it deceived customers. A Wednesday release from the unit (http://1.usa.gov/YeHIek) said ZookaWare misled users into believing that “standard…
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tracking cookies” and “harmless errors” were more dangerous than they are and selling users additional tools to fix what had been incorrectly labeled as problems. The company also manipulated users’ online shopping carts to trick the users into buying multiples of products, marketing “free” trials of software that cost $9.95 after the first month, ineffectively disclosing that the software would automatically renew and posting fake online reviews to bolster the company’s reputation, the release said. “Fake reviews and false free trials are highly deceptive practices that trick customers into paying for products they might otherwise have avoided,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Moreover, no business should trap consumers in auto-renewals with no easy way to escape.” Under the settlement, ZookaWare is prohibited from manipulating customers’ online shopping carts, automatically renewing software subscriptions without user consent or notice, and misrepresenting information about the software, according to the release; additionally, the company must comply with user requests to cancel subscriptions and respond within 48 hours to emails from users. The company had no comment.