State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Wednesday announced a lawsuit against one of the biggest independent tech support providers in the world, iYogi, and its President, Vishal Dhar, to stop a scam that uses deception and scare tactics to pressure consumers into buying unnecessary tech support services.

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, alleges iYogi’s tactics are unfair and deceptive business practices that violate Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit also alleges iYogi induced consumers to install unnecessary software as part of its ploy to coerce them into buying tech support services, a violation of Washington’s Computer Spyware Act.

The state seeks to stop these illegal business practices and recover money for Washington victims. The total number of Washingtonians affected will be identified during the lawsuit, but is estimated to be in the hundreds, if not thousands. The state may seek up to $2,000 in civil penalties for each violation of the Consumer Protection Act and $100,000 per violation of the Computer Spyware Act.

“Tech support scams defraud consumers and often trade on the good reputations of legitimate businesses,” said Ferguson in a media release. “This lawsuit sends a message to tech support scammers that my office will hold them accountable.”

Tech support scams are a national problem with local ramifications. According to Microsoft, an estimated 71,000 Washingtonians lose $33 million each year to these schemes. Nationwide, an estimated 3.3 million Americans suffer $1.5 billion in annual losses from tech support scams.

“We applaud the Washington State Attorney General’s Office for its efforts to protect consumers from tech support scams that have reached epidemic levels in recent years,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer. “Over the past 18 months alone, Microsoft has received more than 180,000 customer calls regarding tech support fraud. Today’s announcement is an important step toward addressing this issue, which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable segments of our society.”

If you believe you are a victim of the iYogi scam, or any other tech support scam, file a consumer complaint with the Attorney General’s Office at atg.wa.gov/file-complaint.