Visa, Mastercard Shut Down Scareware Distributor

[MiltonStone]

In what appears to be an unusual move, security representatives from both MasterCard and Visa have intervened to force a German merchant processing company to halt processing for a Web-based merchant implicated in the distribution of so-called "scareware."


The move came after a report in the Washington Post said the merchant, TrafficConverter2.biz, was using an affiliate program to distribute software that installs itself on personal computers, flashes warnings of virus infections, and markets a program to remove the infections. The Post said the software sold through the merchant is non-functional and may be involved in spreading other malicious software, including the highly publicized "conficker" virus.


The action by the card companies comes in the wake of a pair of high-profile data security breaches involving transaction processing companies Heartland Payment Systems and RBS Worldpay.

 

[Moh1]

Indeed very unusual move from the card companies, I believe they are increasing the time they will play police man in the future since they are more and more behaving like some Internet authorities, why the hell do they think they should shut someone down, they earn huge money on this, I find it stupid as hell.

 

[webdriller]

Do you know anything about how Visa and MC is organized ? Your post sounds like the most stupid I have seen for a long time.

 

[andrew25]

This is a good move. Atlast there are some companies which are acting according to ethics. I personally know many people who are being affected by this scareware and I certainly support this decision.