Later this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will start distributing over $25.5 million in refunds to those misled by tech support companies Restoro and Reimage’s scare tactics.
The FTC will send 736,375 PayPal payments starting March 13 to consumers tricked into paying for unnecessary computer repair services. Between now and March 13, those eligible for a refund will receive an email and must redeem the PayPal payment within 30 days.
Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited were fined $26 million one year ago for violating the FTC Act and the Telemarking Sales Rule after using online ads and pop-ups impersonating Windows pop-ups and system warnings saying the consumers’ PCs were infected with malware, had performance issues, and required urgent attention to avoid harm.
“Since about January 2018, Defendants have marketed deceptively, over the internet and through telemarketing, purported computer repair services to consumers, under the brand names Restoro and Reimage. Defendants use the same deceptive methods to market and sell Restoro and Reimage. The methods include deceptive pop-ups, internet marketing, scans for purported errors and risks, and telemarketing,” the FTC said in the complaint.
“Defendants’ pop-ups and internet ads lure consumers with an offer of a free scan or of an ‘update’ to consumers’ computers. Regardless of the computers’ actual health, the scan or update inevitably finds purported performance or security issues requiring repairs.”
As the FTC revealed in March 2024, its investigators also paid for the companies’ services to replicate the consumers’ experience with Restoro between May and June 2022 and Reimage during July and August 2022.
Even though devices used to test the purchased services had no performance or security issues and were running antivirus software, scanning them using the two companies’ software “revealed” hundreds of issues requiring repair, including “PC Privacy issues,” “Crashed Programs,” “Junk files,” and “Broken Registry issues.”
They were also asked to pay up to $58 for a “PC Repair Plan” and were urged after paying to make “activation” calls to Restore and Reimage telemarketers, who told them the software couldn’t fix all the issues.
The Restoro and Reimage telemarketers requested access to investigators’ computers, and they claimed to find more “errors, critical warnings, viruses, or malware” while pointing to Microsoft Windows Event Viewer log entries linked to standard and benign system errors and warnings.
“The telemarketers then recommend repair services by a technician. They offer various ‘repair plans’ costing $199,99 for’S SILVER,’ $299,99 for ‘GOLD,’ or $499,99 for ‘PLATINUM’ services,” the FTC added at the time.
Besides the $26 million fine, the FTC order also bans the two companies from using deceptive telemarketing and misrepresenting performance or security issues to scare consumers into buying unnecessary computer repair services.
Last year, the FTC also ordered Turbotax-maker Intuit to stop marketing “free” software that isn’t free, banned Avast from selling its users’ browsing data for advertising purposes, and prohibited data brokers InMarket and Outlogic from selling Americans’ raw location data.
In December, the government agency also distributed over $72 million in Fortnite refunds to those affected by Epic Game’s use of dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases.
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