Two dodgy anti-spyware operators have agreed to cough up $2m to settle charges brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The US consumer watchdog alleged that Spyware Assassin and TrustSoft used email and pop-up ads to drive net users to their websites for a "free spyware scan". The "scans" revealed that spyware was present on computers even when they were clean and went on to flog anti-spyware software to concerned punters for up to $39.95 a throw.

In the case of Spyware Assassin, the FTC alleged that the free remote scan was "phony" and that claims that they had "detected spyware on the consumer's computer were deceptive".

Regarding TrustSoft's SpyKiller "scan", the FTC alleged that the software "deceptively identified anti-virus programs, word processing programs, and other legitimate processes running on the system as spyware". Even though SpyKiller promised to remove "all traces" of particular spyware on consumers' computers, the FTC alleged that the software "failed to remove significant amounts of spyware, including specified spyware the defendants claimed to remove".

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