Sanford Wallace

Remember that name.
From the Washington Post TechNews.com Tech Policy/Security Weekly e-mail newsletter

Hawking Spyware


The Federal Trade Commission has defined the apex of "online chutzpah," and its name is Sanford Wallace. The one-time "spam king" who in the 1990s pioneered the use of bulk e-mail in trying to ruin our online lives is back again. This time he, along with two companies, is facing FTC charges that he duped Internet users into buying anti-spyware programs by installing spyware on their computers without their consent.

The spyware, the FTC said in its lawsuit, would open the computer's CD-ROM tray and display a message on the monitor that read: "FINAL WARNING!! If your cd-rom drive(s) is open you DESPERATELY NEED to rid your system of spyware pop-ups IMMEDIATELY!" Consumers who responded to the message were prompted to buy programs called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter for about $30 each.

The lawsuit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, does not say whether the anti-spyware programs really cleaned up other spyware software. Sometimes spyware pop-up ads urge people to download anti-spyware programs that in turn insert ... you guessed it, spyware, on their computers. There is also no word yet on how many victims bought into the scheme.

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, passed two bills that would punish spyware purveyors with fines and up to five years in jail. Those bills still require Senate approval and so far the Senate's leading spyware man, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), favors legislation of his own.