(NEXSTAR) – More than $25 million in payments will go out this week to customers who were tricked into paying for fraudulent tech support offered by two companies.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday that the payments are part of a an order against with Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited, both based in Cyprus.

The payments follow a settlement that both companies agreed to last year.

How did the scam work?

Samuel Levine, former director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a March, 2024, report that the two companies generated tens of millions of dollars using "scare tactics and lies."

Restoro and Reimage took advantage of computer owners – many of them elderly – by creating the appearance of serious security issues, then using deception and other tactics to trick the unsuspecting consumers into paying additional money to solve the "issues," the FTC said.

The scam would often start with fake Microsoft Windows pop-ups warning that viruses had infected the device and prompting the owner to "scan" it "to avoid more........

© The Hill