Investigating Dark-Herring Scamware Class Action Lawsuit | Console and Associates, P.C.

Dark-Herring is a sophisticated scam that uses direct carrier billing to charge consumers a monthly fee without their permission. This scam may have cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to a recent news report, a new type of scamware called “Dark-Herring” may have been scamming upwards 105 million victims worldwide.

Users who have been victims of the scam may be entitled to financial compensation. The law firm of Console & Associates, PC is actively investigating the Dark Herring scamware incident to identify all potentially liable parties. If it turns out that certain app stores or technology companies acted negligently and allowed the fraud – even unknowingly – there may be the possibility of a large-scale class action lawsuit.

Our class action attorneys are currently interviewing victims of the fraud and check what compensation is possible.

What is Dark Herring Scamware?

Scamware is a type of malware or malicious software that trick users into buying unwanted software. The most common example of scamware is pop-up ads that explain that your computer has been infected with a virus and that you need to click a link to purchase software to fix the problem.

Dark Herring is a very sophisticated scam that tricks users into signing up for automatic monthly bills. How it works: The scam’s orchestrators set up malicious websites that verify a user’s geographic location. Once a user’s location is determined, the website redirects them to another local webpage that is in their language. The idea behind this is to make it easier for users to consent to information requests from websites in their own language.

” . . . What users don’t realize is that they aren’t actually verifying their identity, but are signing up for direct billing through the carrier.”

Once the user is redirected to the target webpage, the page asks the user to verify their identity by providing their mobile phone number. However, what users don’t realize is that they aren’t actually confirming their identity, but rather signing up for direct billing through the carrier. The average monthly fee is $15 per month; However, since users do not realize that they have signed up for a service, most users go several months without noticing the unauthorized charges. And since the application remains on a user’s mobile phone, billing can continue indefinitely.

According to a recent report, the creators of Dark Herring scam first started scamming users in March 2020 and the last case of scam seems to be in November 2021. According to the report, there were over 470 malicious applications available through the Google Play Store and other third-party app stores during this period. The report estimates that the number of users whose phones may be infected with Dark Herring is around 105 million.

Can users who have suffered financial losses make a legal claim?

Certainly, scamware like Dark Herring is illegal and those responsible for the scamware can be held financially responsible for the losses suffered by the users. However, given the difficulty in tracking down the perpetrators of these scams, the best hope for users to obtain compensation lies with other potentially responsible parties.

To be clear, there is no indication that an app store or any other tech company played a role in Dark Herring. However, Console & Associates, PC is actively investigating all potentially liable parties in order to better ascertain the legal rights of those affected by this scamware. For example, large tech companies do not necessarily have to have played an active or knowing role in facilitating a fraud to be held liable. Under US consumer privacy laws, companies can be held liable if they fail to adequately protect consumers from cyber threats.

Console & Associates PC law firm is committed to protecting consumer privacy from the ever-present threat of cyberattacks. The company investigates all types of data breaches, scamware programs, ransomware attacks and other network intrusions to determine the legal rights of consumers who have trusted companies with their personal information.

Comments are closed.