The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has succeeded in getting a court to freeze the activities of two companies that have been behind a massive scareware scam.

Innovative Marketing. and ByteHosting Internet Services were named in the legal case as being behind a scam where computer users were told that their computers were infected with viruses when they visited a web page.

The virus warning includes a link to a web page where the viewer could buy anti-virus software such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus for $39.95 or more. Up to one million Americans may have fallen for the scam.

“These two companies, along with individuals Daniel Sundin, Sam Jain, Marc D’Souza, Kristy Ross and James Reno, violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting that they conducted scans of consumers’ computers and detected a variety of security or privacy issues, including viruses, spyware, system errors and pornography,” the FTC said.

“The complaint also names a sixth individual, Maurice D’Souza, as a relief defendant who received proceeds from the scheme.”

The US District Court for the District of Maryland heard that the two companies duped advertising networks into believing that they were running legitimate advertising. However, code was inserted into adverts that redirected viewers to web pages that claimed to have detected the viruses.

The court has now frozen the activities of the two companies and is trying to get financial compensation for those people fooled by the scam. However, this may be difficult as Innovative Marketing is a company incorporated in Belize that maintains offices in Kiev, Ukraine.

ByteHosting Internet Services is based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the court is taking action against that company.