WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida on Wednesday announced that they had obtained a court order to temporarily shut down and freeze the assets of two telemarketing operations that the commission said had deceptively sold more than $120 million in technical support services and software.

Using a variety of company names, including Boost Software, Advanced Tech Supportco, OMG Tech Help, Vast Tech Support and PC Vitalware, the companies used software designed to trick consumers into thinking their computers had bugs or errors that needed to be fixed, officials from the two agencies argued in papers filed in federal court in Florida.

The companies then directed consumers to support services that were “high-pressure deceptive sales pitches” for products to fix nonexistent computer problems, officials said.

“These operations prey on consumers’ lack of technical knowledge with deceptive pitches and high-pressure tactics to sell useless software and services,” said Jessica L. Rich, director of the F.T.C.’s bureau of consumer protection. The agency is seeking disgorgement of profits and restitution to victims.

Consumers found themselves the targets of the companies when they clicked on pop-up advertisements or search results tied to common computer terms. The ads offered free software that purported to scan a computer’s system and locate malicious or otherwise dangerous files.

“The scan is designed to falsely identify problems on consumers’ computers, exaggerate minor issues and otherwise deceive consumers into thinking that their computers are significantly compromised,” the F.T.C. said in papers filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

In one example, a program offered by the companies named PC Cleaner Pro scans a target’s computer to see whether it has the ability to block 926 specific pieces of malware. “These particular 926 pieces of malware, however, date back to at least 2004 and have not been active threats in many years,” the F.T.C. said.

In many cases, Microsoft fixed those problems so long ago that it no longer includes the specific blocking software in its preinstalled Windows Defender anti-malware program — resulting in nearly all of them being identified as problems on nearly any computer.

The program then offers a consumer the chance to fix the “problems” with a paid version of PC Cleaner Pro. Once they pay $29.99 for the program, consumers must call a toll-free number to “activate” the software, and when they do, they are subjected to high-pressure sales tactics for more services.

Those services, including security software and remote tech support services, cost consumers as much as $500 if they signed up, the F.T.C. said.

From 2011 to 2013, the F.T.C. said, consumers downloaded PC Cleaner Pro more than 450,000 times.

One of the individual defendants in the Boost Software case is Elliot Loewenstern, an officer of Vast Tech Support and OMG Tech Help. Mr. Loewenstern was a top broker at Stratton Oakmont, the firm founded by Jordan Belfort and chronicled in the film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” In 1999, Mr. Loewenstern was barred from the securities industry for life in a settlement of fraud charges for his actions running Biltmore Securities.