Washington State Settles Spyware Suit With Oregon Man

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

An Oregon man will pay nearly $84,000 in fines and consumer restitution for using e-mail to market bogus anti-spyware software called Spyware Cleaner, Washington state officials said in announcing a settlement.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna said the penalties are the first under an anti-spyware law the Legislature passed last year.

The settlement with Zhijian Chen of Portland, Ore., follows a five-month investigation by the attorney general's consumer protection high-tech unit.

Officials say Chen made thousands of dollars in commissions by sending e-mail meant to mislead people into believing their computers were infected by a virus and that Spyware Cleaner sold by Secure Computer was the fix.

More here.