Zhijian Chen, of Portland, Oregon, has achieved a distinction of some kind: he's the first person to be fined under Washington state's 2005 Computer Spyware Act. He has been ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution to users who bought Spyware Cleaner, $24,000 in fines, and almost $44,000 in attorneys' fees.
Chen sent annoying pop-ups to Windows users via the Net Send command, so they were not blocked by browser-oriented pop-up blockers. These apparently looked like system messages, and directed users to a Web site. As TechWeb notes:
There, users were offered a free "scan" for malicious software. As in other so-called "rogue" anti-spyware products -- dubbed "scamware" by some -- the scan always detected spyware, even if none existed. To remove the fictitious spyware, users were pitched the $49.95 Spyware Cleaner.
It's easy to understand why he did it: "Chen was paid a commission of 75% of the purchase price, or $37.46, for each copy of Spyware Cleaner sold to users fooled by his ersatz messages."
