FTC says ‘sextortion’ protection companies deceived customers about services
The FTC sued Dmitry Belkin, alleging his sextortion-recovery companies defrauded customers of at least $60 million.
The Federal Trade Commission filed a federal lawsuit in Ohio against Dmitry Belkin and 12 businesses, including Digital Forensics Corp. and Remote Backup Corp., alleging deceptive practices since at least 2020. The companies advertised help for romance and sextortion victims through sites such as BlackmailHelpline.com and DigitalForensics.com and took in at least $60 million. The complaint says they failed to provide promised tracing, cease-and-desist, and law-enforcement services, fabricated chat transcripts and locations, pushed costly follow-on monitoring packages, and denied refunds. The FTC is asking the court to stop Belkin from further operations.
- The FTC sued Dmitry Belkin and 12 companies in federal court in Ohio.
- The firms allegedly collected at least $60 million from sextortion victims since 2020.
- Promised tracing, takedown, and law-enforcement services were allegedly not performed.
- Employees allegedly used fear-based scripts and a fake Better Business Bureau site.
- Countries
- United States
From the original article
5 min read at cyberscoop.com
A federal lawsuit claims that Dmitry Belkin and his companies routinely failed to deliver on services to protect customers, generated fake evidence and denied refunds to victims. The post FTC says ‘sextortion’ protection companies deceived customers about services appeared first on CyberScoop.
By djohnson · cyberscoop.com
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