Web site owner hosted by ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC should be searching for a new hosting company today after ByteHosting was ordered closed down by a federal judge, as another major online operation that duped more than one million computer users into buying bogus malware protection using fraudulent ads and false claims viewers' machines contained illegal pornography.
The order against two firms, Innovative Marketing of Belize and ByteHosting Internet Services of Ohio, resulted from a lawsuit filed last week by the Federal Trade Commission.
Recently, another company faced simular actions. Alpha Red chief executive officer James Reed McCreary IV was sued by Washington state, who accused McCreary of selling "scareware," software that made Windows XP users falsely believe that their registry had become "damaged and corrupted."Alpha Red has recently gone into bankruptcy leaving all their clients scrambling to find new hosts for their sites and hardware
One of the defendants in the ByteHosting action, Kristy Ross of Maryland, spent more than $3 million starting in October 2004 to advertise products including WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner and ErrorSafe, according to the suit. The ads produced popup windows that falsely depicted a system scan that invariably found hundreds of pests. Some scareware titles also included a warning that the user's PC "stored numerous items that are dangerous to your reputation" and could result in "accidental or purposeful disclosure of adult materials" and "strong disapproval of your addictions to X+X+X sites." Others fabricated "illegal porn" and displayed "a series of hard-core pornographic pictures," to those viewing the ads.
Innovative Marketing, has its own pending lawsuit in Ontario Canada, against 2 of the defendants Marc and Maurice D'Souza, alleging millions were skimmed from the IM company. (I'm sure the wisdom of proceeding with this case may be garnering a second look in light of the federal suit)
The order by US District Judge Benson Everett Legg halts the operation through Friday. A hearing is scheduled for the same day to entertain the government's motion for a preliminary injunction, which would remain in place while the lawsuit proceeds. The judge's order also freezes the defendants' assets. An FTC spokeswoman said she wasn't sure how much money that involved, but given the price of the scareware (around $40 per installation) it could easily be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Other defendants named in the lawsuit include: James Reno of Maryland, Sam Jain of California, Daniel Sundin of London, Marc D'Souza of Toronto, and Maurice D'Souza of Ontario.
Clients of ByteHosting can review their services or review your present host on HostJury
About ByetHosting
Founded in August 1997 as a sole-proprietorship by James Reno, an Amelia, OH Middle School Student, ByteHosting Internet Services has evolved to become a leading Webhosting Solutions provider. ByteHosting has evolved into a full scale webhosting solutions provider and now provides webhosting solutions to companies & personal websites both large and small. We provide all the servers, bandwidth, and provide management services to run almost any application visable on the web. Since the beginning ByteHosting's founder has focused greatly on one thing, Providing Quality Webhosting and Colocation Services & support that you as a customer can trust and rely on.
Sun, 6 June 2010, 19:24
Great News!! A federal grand jury has indicted Reno on 20 counts of wire fraud. It turns out he wasn't so innocent as several im conversations with co defendant Sam Jain show. Hopefully he will be sentenced to the max on each count and the sentences should run consecutively. Reno and his fellow sociopaths should never walk the streets again!
Tue, 23 June 2009, 04:12
I do not think that how this is ByteHosting's fault, They manage their files/servers
Fri, 30 January 2009, 14:18
Byte Hosting was only down for a day as the server was moved to a new data center. My website still works over a month later. Byte Hosting is NOT dead. James tells me they are out of the colo business, but hosting continues.
Fri, 16 January 2009, 19:30
Go FTC! I hope Reno does a lot of HARD time. He was part of the distribution network of the rogue winantiviruspro2006. Lock the bastard up and impoverish him for the rest of his life. Now I can sue for damages!
Fri, 9 January 2009, 22:49
Not passing judgement here or anything - but you'd know how much was in his bank account?
Fri, 9 January 2009, 14:36
ya bytehosting made millions
then why did reno only have a few thousand dollars in his bank and a pile of thing he has payments on , thats right he has million
Wed, 31 December 2008, 22:08
I think Sam is a pretty cool guy. eh infects computers and doesn't afraid of anything.
Wed, 31 December 2008, 15:12
I have personally talked to James Reno on many occasions. He's a good guy. My site has been hosted on byte hosting and stopped working today. I wish I'd known about this, I'd have backed up some more things.
Sun, 28 December 2008, 16:00
oops in reply-to: "david"
Sun, 28 December 2008, 16:49
Eric,
You should read further. "1.2 million" which paid for approx. 28 employee's salaries + expenses of a 28-person callcenter with an average phone bill of approx. 40k+/mo This is not "pushing millions of dollars".
12 months in a year 40k/mo phone bill = $480k just in telephone services leaving $720k to divide over expenses such as office-lease electric and other various costs of approx 10k/mo = another 120k = 600k remaining.
600k/28 = 21k/yr in wages meaning
40hr work week * 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year. 21000/2080 = $10/hr per employee.
So where's the millions?
In response to:
Eric,
Reading into the pdf for the injunction a bit further, they weren't just involved in the hosting of it. The bytehosting owner was pushing millions of dollars alongside his sister, it's sketch.
Sat, 27 December 2008, 01:51
Anyone remember efront? They were an early website network that went belly up in the first dotcom boom. They were infamous because their CEO's ICQ logs -- their CEO was a fellow named Sam Jain -- were posted all over the internet (actually, they're still posted years later at http://www.echostation.com/efront/), in which he conspired to cut out webmasters and, in one case, "rape and spit on" an uncooperative employee.
James Reno appears in the logs as a young high school kid that Sam Jain used to pay pennies to update sites for him. There's also a "Kristy" but I don't know if it's the same one.
So you have some background: these people have been doing this for years, and will keep doing so even longer. No honor among thieves, etc.
Fri, 19 December 2008, 15:48
Claims against "BHIS (ByteHosting Internet Services)" is nothing but lies by the FTC just because some U.S. Based ISP provided service to a client overseas.
Another innocent company the FTC has destroyed.
BHIS had no influence in the business ethics of said defendant/client "Innovative Marketing, L.L.C."
Current and past clients of BHIS will tell you the FTC is full of $%!+ on this case and the actions they have taken so far.
P.S. btw F.T.C. "WE ARE NOT HIDING" you Idiots. Just ask the FBI. Plus BHIS is a legal company and complies with all federal and ohio state laws.
Wed, 17 December 2008, 02:32
Eric,
Reading into the pdf for the injunction a bit further, they weren't just involved in the hosting of it. The bytehosting owner was pushing millions of dollars alongside his sister, it's sketch.
Mon, 15 December 2008, 08:09
I really don't see how this is ByteHosting's fault, sure they should of been watching over there files/servers but I feel bad for the guy he's left with nothing.
Sat, 13 December 2008, 06:56
I'm ashamed to share the hosting industry with these greedy scum bags.
Very sad how it affects their customers who have done nothing to deserve such an injustice.