Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced a settlement with a Florida tech company, PC Cleaner, Inc. The settlement stems from the state’s investigation into the company and CEO Cashier Myricks for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
As part of the settlement, a court entered a judgment today against PC Cleaner and Myricks, which deceived consumers into purchasing software based on a deceptive “trial scan” of computers. Regardless of a computer’s performance, the trial scan would alarm consumers by finding hundreds of supposed problems. While registering PC Cleaner’s software, consumers were then led to call a phone number where a third party service would also convince them they needed additional, expensive tech support services. This third party “tech support” would often deceive the user into paying hundreds of dollars for unneeded “repairs,” and sometimes even create an additional recurring monthly credit card charge. Profiting from both scams, PC Cleaner obtained millions of dollars from consumers nationwide. Today’s judgment includes a permanent injunction that will prohibit these deceptive practices going forward.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Florida today also obtained settlements against PC Cleaner, Inc. for its deceptive trade practices.
To see a copy of the original petition click here:
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/01_PC_Cleaner_POP_071116.pdf
To see a copy of the agreed final judgment click here:
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/02_AFJ_071316.pdf