back to article Crudware pusher to pay $25,000 to settle charges

A California man has agreed to pay $25,000 to settle charges he dished out misleading advertisements that duped computer users into buying unneeded software they were told would fix critical operating system errors. HoanVinh V. Nguyenphuoc is the owner of FixWinReg, which used a Windows feature known as Net Send to display …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    too light of a punishment

    they should have sentenced him to 25000 kicks in the ass...

  2. Finn

    Copyright violation?

    There could be additional law suits following. He has obviously broken the copyright laws as that is Microsoft's registered modus operandi.

  3. Alan Donaly
    Gates Horns

    dead giveaway

    "The messages claimed there were errors in the Windows registry that could result in data loss or corruption unless fixed immediately."

    They should have known Windows would never warn you about this spoils the fun.

  4. Scott

    Of course there was errors in the registry

    Doesn't every windows system have some errors in the registry. I guess calling them critical was deceiving but an alert that said you have errors in your registry would, I assume, be legal.

    However in relation to the fine while it is lower than I would like at least it isn't like spammers where you get fined an d still make a profit

    fleeced "hundreds" (eg. 300) x $30 = $9,000

    $9,000 - $25,000 = -$16,000

    But I guess it depends on what 100s mean and also if that was the total number 'fleeced'

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Last name...

    I think that would be pronounced "WinPhuck". no?

  6. dave butler

    What bulls**t

    Woman downloads a few songs and does not remove the seeds from the shared directory, may or may not have actually provided downloads 220,000.00 USD, this scumbag fleeces many out of real money and 25,000.00. Good that AmeriKa has the old priorities .....

  7. Svein Skogen
    Thumb Up

    First of many? Hope so.

    IANAL, but isn't it an option for each and every one of the sods "customers" to launch their own trial? I hear "fraud" is a good way in, since it's obvious (in retrospect, or for someone who knows windows), that fraud is what this is.

    IIRC, fraud is an offence you get jailtime for. Given that US uses accumulative penalties, that ought to land him quite a vacation.

    //Svein

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ Alan

    Here's your coat...

    Seriously tho.... In this, the age of Spyware and all kinds of nasty shit lurking around every virtual corner just waiting to dupe you into clicking something or just installing it's self on your system... It's a wonder anyone clicked the thing let alone downloaded it!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Careful wording could have saved him...

    "Your system is insecure and may crash or destroy your data without warning."

    Small print: Not because of a specific fault, just because your OS is pish...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Lets get our priorities right,

    This person has committed a crime that any sensible person would judge to be many many thousands of times worse than the person who merely angered the RIAA, yet was fined 10 times more because the RIAA improperly has more clout through friends in high places than the "real" law enforcement people.

    Justice not only has to be seen to be done, it has to be ACTUALLY done and that means wasting less time making an example of very minor offences and spending far more time ensuring that people who commit very very serious crimes such as this are totally deprived of every cent that they have.

    Where there's no sense, there's no cents should be the motto of the courts for these serious criminals.

  11. Smell My Finger

    Oh dear

    We had to ban this kind of protocol entering our network years ago when we started getting spam net send messages offering us all the chance of getting cheap degrees. Was a bit funny because the spam was being sent to a university network :)

    I knew this would bring out the anti-Windows trolls though, have you chumps any idea how tiresome you all are?

  12. AndyB
    Thumb Down

    Re:Lets get our priorities right

    "This person has committed a crime that any sensible person would judge to be many many thousands of times worse than the person who merely angered the RIAA"

    Spot on!

    Rip-off ordinary computer users and make a fortune doing so = slap-on-wrist.

    Share a few crap tunes and make no money from it = massive fine.

    I note that Orlowski is STILL not permitting comments on his pro-RIAA rants.

  13. jdotc

    That name...

    sounds like something Lionel Hutz from the Simpsons would use. In fact, wasn't he once "Lionel Hutz aka Miguel Sanchez aka Dr Nguyen van Phuoc"?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AndyB - right on the money

    I couldn't agree more, especially with the last line.

    At least your comment complaining about it got published. Mine got censored.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm...

    It's amazing that 70 years after the "war of the worlds" radio show, specifically designed to point out to people that they can't always believe what the electronic box in the corner of the room says, people still believe anything electronics tells them.

    Also, I wonder how he was using 'net send', not a windows only command, it started off life in OS/2 I seem to remember. (I might of made that up too...)

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