One of the worst scammers fined, but not enough

[Musicat]

A California man has agreed to pay more than $136,000 and to a permanent ban on offering tech support services as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that he provided substantial assistance to an India-based tech support scam.

This is Parmjit Singh Brar, the operator of Genius Technologies, LLC and Avangatee Services, LLC who is accused of

…contact[ing] consumers by calling them or using Internet pop-up ads disguised as security alerts to trick consumers into buying bogus tech support services, according to the complaint. The telemarketers claimed to be from well-known tech companies and warned consumers that their computers were at risk. If the telemarketers persuaded consumers to give them remote access to consumers’ computers, the telemarketers purported to find a serious cyber-threat and claimed they would install expensive and high-quality security software to resolve the problem in exchange for a substantial sum of money. The FTC alleges that the telemarketers installed out-of-date security software, and, in the process, illegally obtained consumers’ personal information without their permission. The cost to consumers ranged between several hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

His fine was $7.5 million, and he paid less than 2% of that. Since his income has been estimated to be millions per month, this was probably just what he had in his jeans at the time. If he skips to India, he might be able to avoid paying anything more, and India won’t prevent him from repeating the entire scam.

**No one else was indicted or fined. None of the victims got any money back. No criminal charges have been filed. **

I’d say Mr. Brar got a pretty sweet deal, a bulging bank account, and his name may crop up again in the future, not in a good way. IMHO, this dude is laughing all the way to his Indian bank. Why isn’t he in jail?

More about this and still more. When I listened to this audio track, I recognized several characteristics of hundreds of calls I have received in the last several year from these dudes (I keep a log).

[Measure_for_Measure]

Enterprising politicians could climb aboard this issue. It would help their career.

[Jake_Bullet_Traffic_Control]

My gran fell for one of these a couple of years ago (she’s in her 80s). No joke, I would love it if someone killed this motherfucker in front of his kids.

[Measure_for_Measure]

Funny how white collar crime is met with shrugs from congress, LE, et al.