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At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court ordered that the assets of the operators of an alleged tech support scam be used to reimburse consumers who lost money to the defendants’ scheme.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania agreed with the FTC, the State of Connecticut, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that the money held by a court-ordered receiver was acquired by the defendants “through fraud and other improper means” and should be used for the benefit of consumer victims.

The FTC alleged that the defendants used Internet ads and popups that claimed to be from major tech companies like Microsoft and Apple to trick consumers into calling the defendants and buying tech support services.

In May, the FTC, Connecticut and Pennsylvania announced settlements with Bruce Bartolotta, Click4Support, LLC, Spanning Source LLC, George Saab, Chetan Patel and Niraj Patel as well as Innovazion Inc., Innovazion Research Private Limited, Abhishek Gagneja, and Rishi Gagneja. Under the settlements, the defendants are banned from marketing technical support services and agreed to pay a total of more than $554,000 and to forfeit $1.3 million held by the receiver. The settlements were announced as part of the Operation Tech Trap initiative, an international crackdown of tech support scams announced by the FTC in May.

Consumers who believe they were victims of the tech support services operated by the defendants can file a consumer complaint with the FTC by visiting www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or by calling (877) 382-4357.

The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about consumer topics and file a consumer complaint online or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, read our blogs and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.