FTC’s $25.5M scam refund treats victims to $34 each

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is distributing over $25.5 million in refunds to consumers deceived by tech support scammers, averaging about $34 per person.

The refunds relate to a case last year in which two Cyprus-based companies, Restoro and Reimage, were accused of deceiving consumers through misleading computer repair services. The FTC alleged the operation started at least in 2018.

As part of a settlement with the FTC, the companies agreed to pay $26 million and were barred from misrepresenting their services in the future.

The companies, operating as two divisions of the same deceptive business, relied on classic tech support scam tactics. According to the agency, fake Microsoft Windows pop-ups warned users that their computers were infected with viruses and urged them to run a scan to “avoid more damage.” Regardless of the actual state of the system, these scans always identified serious issues that supposedly required immediate attention.

The average payments made following the initial scam ranged between $27 and $58, although follow-up calls would attempt to re-victimize those who already showed they could be tricked once.

Bad news for the two companies, one of those people was an undercover fed and the scammers tried to fleece them out of additional repair services costing up to $500. Dirtbags busted.

“These companies used scare tactics and lies about threats to consumers’ personal computers to bilk consumers, particularly older consumers, out of tens of millions of dollars,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, at the time. “We have taken decisive action to halt this scheme and return money to consumers.”

Court documents suggested the two companies were being tracked by credit card issuers and payment processors over fraudulent activity for some time.

The FTC announced on Monday that it will issue 736,375 PayPal payments on March 13 and 14, totaling over $25.5 million. Recipients will have 30 days to redeem their payments. The refunds follow the FTC’s recovery and return of more than $337 million to consumers nationwide through enforcement actions in 2024.

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Billions in losses
The consumer watchdog separately released its review of all things scammy in 2024 on Monday, saying the dollars lost to online miscreants keep rising.

A total of over $12.5 billion was lost last year, accounting for all different kinds of scams. That’s $2.5 billion more than in 2023.

While tech support scams have declined in prominence, they ranked as the 22nd most reported scam type in 2024, with 24,311 complaints filed – representing 0.38 percent of all reports.

The most common crimes, according to the reports made to the FTC, were imposter scams – in which fraudsters impersonate individuals or legitimate organizations to deceive victims. Around one in five people targeted by these scammers lost money, with a median loss of $800.

Those aged 20-29 reported monetary losses more frequently than any other age group, although older people (aged 70+) were scammed out of much more money on average. ®