A federal court, working wit the FTC and State of Florida, has temporarily shut down multiple, interrelated IT service providers that allegedly are deceptive scammers.
The defendants in the case are:
- BigDog Solutions LLC (doing business as Help Desk National and Help Desk Global);
- PC Help Desk US LLC (doing business as Help Desk National and Help Desk Global);
- Inbound Call Specialist LLC;
- BlackOpteck CE Inc.;
- 9138242 Canada Corporation;
- Digital Growth Properties, LLC;
- Christopher J. Costanza (doing business as CJM Consulting, LLC); Suzanne W. Harris; Muzaffar Abbas; Gary Oberman; Donald Dolphin and Justin Powers.
Allegations Against IT Service Providers
The defendants are charged with violations of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The FTC and State of Florida are seeking to permanently stop the alleged illegal practices and obtain refunds for the victimized businesses, according to an FTC announcement.
The complaint alleges that defendants, based in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, and Canada, relied on a combination of deceptive online ads and misleading, high-pressure sales tactics to frighten consumers into spending hundreds of dollars for dubious computer “repairs” and antivirus software, the FTC said.
ChannelE2E could not reach the defendants for comment.
This Sounds Familiar
Meanwhile, multiple court cases against iYogi -- a remote IT support provider -- continue to navigate through the U.S. legal system. Some plaintiffs allege breach of contract, while others allege fraud. iYogi denied wrongdoing in one of the cases in December 2015, but hasn't publicly commented since that time.
