Pop-up fake virus warnings set up a worldwide $28 million scam. Florida men will pay.
Those annoying flashing warnings that froze your computer screen, claiming a virus has infected it? It could have been the bait in a $28 million fraud run by two Broward County men.
Michael Seward of Pompano Beach and Kevin James McCormick of Hollywood will be of federal prison for the next nine years and 11 years, respectively. Each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in East St. Louis, Illinois, federal court and is responsible for $11.5 million in restitution.
Victims came from each of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and every Canadian province and several other countries. According to Seward and McCormick’s admission of facts, an old, wrinkled scheme with whiskers got a shave and a facelift for the online age.
McCormick, 47, and Seward, 32, ran First Choice Tech Support, which they renamed Client Care Experts. Client Care bought pop-up internet ads, but disguised the ads so they appeared as urgent warnings about viruses and malware. In their more advanced form, the pop-ups froze the browser, creating the impression of malware destruction in progress.
Savvy users either killed the flashing warning or, in the case of browser freeze, rebooted despite the fake warnings not to do so.
Victims called the number on the pop-up and spoke to a Client Care salesperson. These folks offered to analyze the problem by the victims giving them access to the computer systems and/or running a Webroot System Analyzer. Of course, the analysis would come back, no matter the Webroot score, that virus infection ran rampant in the computer.
Client Care or, later, ABC Repair Tech, offered to take care of the problem for a fee: $250 for a system tune-up, $400 for antivirus software. Discounts materialized for potential victims who said those prices were too high.
Seward, McCormick and 17 other employees who’ve pleaded guilty to fraud charges ran this scam from March 2015 through December 2016. Seward’s admission of facts says they managed to rip off $28,908,467 from victims.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 2:52 PM.
