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Enternet Media Raided By FTC, Shut Down
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-11-11
 Security News RSS Feed
Accused spyware distributor Enternet faces charges after a federal judge shut them down on Thursday. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit and was subsequently granted the court order closing the California company down.
The FTC claimed the court order was needed to prevent Enternet from distributing illegal downloads. According to the complaint, Enternet offered bloggers free background music downloads for their blogs and instead, the bloggers downloaded malicious code.
The music code downloaded was bundled with a program that flashed warnings to consumers who visited the blog sites about the security of their computer systems. Consumers who went for the upgrade downloaded spyware onto their computers.
The FTC's statement said the court has frozen the assets of Enternet pending a further hearing. The FTC also wants to shut the business down permanently and want to require the operators to give up their "ill-gotten gains."
The FTC complaint alleges that the Web sites of the defendants and their affiliates cause "installation boxes" to pop up on consumers' computer screens. In one variation of the scheme, the installation boxes offer a variety of "freeware," including music files, cell phone ring tones, photographs, wallpaper, and song lyrics. In another, the boxes warn that consumers' Internet browsers are defective, and claim to offer free browser upgrades or security patches. Consumers who download the supposed freeware or security upgrades do not receive what they are promised; instead, their computers are infected with spyware.
The FTC received a little help from its friends in the form of Microsoft, Webroot Software and Google. Google is one group who'd taken action because many of their customers, through their Blogger service, had been hit with the scam.
Defendants named in the FTC complaint are Enternet Media, Inc.; Conspy & Co., Inc., Lida Rohbani, also known as Linda Rohhani and Lida Hakimi; Nima Hakimi; Baback (Babak) Hakimi, also known as Bobby Rohbani and Bobby Hakimi, individually and doing business as Networld One, all based in California which used exploitative code called: "Search Miracle," "Miracle Search," "EM Toolbar," "EliteBar," and "Elite Toolbar." The defendants do business as "Enternet Media, Inc.," "Enternet," "www.searchmiracle.com," "www.c4tdownload.com," and "www.cash4toolbar.com". The affiliate, also charged in the complaint, is Nicholas C. Albert, doing business as Iwebtunes and www.iwebtunes.com, based in Ohio.
For folks who have experience with this company, the FTC has provided two ways to contact them: either an email address at enternetmedia@ftc.gov or call 202-326-2992 to leave a message.
The FTC voted 4-0 to file the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Judge Christina Snyder issued the orders and said Enternet can't do any further business until a hearing on Monday.
Spyware remains in the news, as it is a growing business with profits estimated at over $2 billion a year according to SecurityFocus. The industry has become quite lucrative and is only expected to grow.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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