Four years after a B.C. company agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle money laundering allegations from American authorities, no apparent enforcement action has been taken on this side of the border.

Tens of thousands of computer users were collectively scammed out of more than US$120 million by fraudsters at two American tech support operations, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A director at the U.S. agency said the scammers used bogus scanning software to trick their targets into thinking there were serious problems with their computers, “prey(ing) on consumers’ lack of technical knowledge with deceptive pitches and high-pressure tactics to sell useless software and services.”