Computer Repair Business Temporarily Shut Down for Bilking Consumers, Says FTC

A federal court temporarily shut down an international tech support operation last week, froze its assets and appointed a receiver after the FTC and the state of Florida alleged the business duped consumers "into spending hundreds of dollars for dubious computer 'repairs' and antivirus software," said the commission in a Friday news release. The FTC voted 3-0 to file the complaint in U.S. District Court in Chicago, which issued a temporary restraining order June 28 against the defendants, based in Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Canada. Named in the June 24 complaint were Big Dog Solutions, doing business as Help Desk National and Help Desk Global; PC Help Desk US, doing business as Help Desk National and Help Desk Global; and BlackOptek, among other companies. Named individual defendants include Christopher Costanza, Suzanne Harris, Muzaffar Abbas, Gary Oberman, Donald Dolphin and Justin Powers. They allegedly violated the FTC Act, telemarketing sales rule and a similar Florida statute, the commission said. The complaint alleged defendants caused "pop-up messages ... to be displayed on consumers' computers instructing them to immediately call a toll free number for technical assistance," which connected them to telemarketers in Boynton Beach, Florida. Essentially the pop-ups, which resembled messages from Apple and Microsoft, rendered the consumers' browsers "unusable," the complaint said. After consumers called, the telemarketers supposedly ran "diagnostic tests" on the computers and then would offer a $200 to $400 charge to fix the problems, and also push an ongoing technical support plan that could cost up to $19.99 per month, the complaint said. Boca Raton, Florida-based attorney Joe Grant, who represents only Big Dog, Costanza and Harris, emailed that his clients' business had closed down before the complaint was filed and a receiver has been appointed. "We are working with the FTC and the State of FL on an agreement relating to the injunction issues and asset freeze," he wrote. "We dispute the allegations in the complaint, which we deal with at a later stage in this action." Abbas, who is CEO of BlackOptek, didn't comment.