Thursday, Mar 27, 2008    Text size: 

The messages included links to online adult sites and sexual enhancement drugs such as Viagra.

“The suit we filed alleges hundreds of Washington state residents were victimized by Ron Cooke and his company, Messenger Solutions,” Attorney General spokeswoman Kristin Alexander told XBIZ.

The suit, filed Tuesday, claims Cooke violated Washington’s Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection Act while marketing programs under the names Messenger Blocker, WinAntiVirus Pro 2007, System Doctor and WinAntiSpyware.

Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna claimed that consumers who downloaded the software were further victimized when the program caused their computers to stealthily blast messages to other PCs at a rate of one every two seconds.

“Our suit alleges that it wasn’t enough for Ron Cooke to manipulate consumers into buying his software,” McKenna said in a release. “His program maliciously turns victims’ computers into spamming machines.”

The software is difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall and disables Windows Task Manager, the suit said.

The suit demands fines and an injunction against the defendants.

Alexander said the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit has brought a total of six lawsuits under Washington’s Computer Spyware Statute since the law was approved by the state Legislature in 2005.

Last year, Washington state sued three affiliate companies that peddled products through spam operations. Those companies were Secure Links Networks LLC and CEO Manuel Corona Jr. of Brea, Calif.; NJC Softwares LCC and company officer Rudy O. Corella of Lake Elsinore, Calif.; and FixWinReg and President HoanVinh Nguyenphuoc of Redondo Beach, Calif.

Alexander said that the state could ultimately file suits against some of the companies that advertised through Cooke’s operation. “We never divulge information of that nature until we file suit,” she said.

The suit shows in screen captures that operators of AmateurWorld.co.uk and P6Y.com used Cooke’s service.

XBIZ was not able to obtain comment from Cooke at press time.