News Compass

Friday, December 19, 2003

The Good News: Email Spammers Are Being Sued in Court

If you have been deluged with garbage emails from spammers in your emailbox, there is hope. Microsoft and the New York Attorney-General are suing the companies sending out those garbage emails to you, intentionally into bankruptcy.

Read Here the Supreme Court of New York lawsuit filed by the AG New York. This is in pdf format (needs Acrobat Reader).

Read Here Press Release on the lawsuit by the Office of the New York Attorney General New York

As evidence in the lawsuit, e-mail exchanges among employees and principals of the companies that were sued were subpoenaed. Here (see below) is one email that was subpoenaed by the Attorney General's office to give you an idea the extent of spamming being conducted.

From: SRich10195@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 12:34 p.m.
To: Robert J. Aitken
Cc: Justin Champion
Subject: Re: More complaints from false headings

We send out 10 million plus emails a day and you on average send me 2 complaints or less in a day. Today 3 complaints. I think 1 complaint per 3 million is real good.

We average about 1 in 5 million but still we have generated over 19,984 leads for items in offerstream this month and I have logged from you guys less then [sic] 20 complaints this month being sent to us. If your [sic] having issues with your ISP maybe something else is the reason

Read Here full article by SAUL HANSELL in New York Times

Excerpts:

The New York state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, and Microsoft each filed suits today charging one of the nation's most prominent e-mail marketers with fraud stemming from sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, commonly known as spam.

The suits name three companies, including OptInRealBig, which is run by Scott Richter, the third-largest source of spam in the world, sending more than 250 million messages a day.

"We will drive them into bankruptcy," Mr. Spitzer said in a news conference today in New York.

President Bush had signed a law that makes it a crime to send deceptive commercial e-mail. But even in advance of that law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, state and federal authorities have started to move more aggressively against some of the most prominent bulk e-mailers and companies advertised by spam.

Last week, Virginia indicted two North Carolina men whose e-mail marketing to members of America Online generated 100,000 complaints in a single month. A week earlier, federal agents arrested Vineet K. Chhabra, operator of one of the largest Internet pharmacies selling diet drugs and Viagra, largely through spam

Last year, Mr. Spitzer sued MonsterHut, a marketing firm, claiming it defrauded advertisers by sending their e-mail messages to addresses it had stolen, although it said it marketed only to people who asked to receive promotions.

In May, his office charged Howard Carmack of Buffalo with credit card fraud in a lawsuit involving spam. That case is scheduled to be tried next month.

Mr. Spitzer's office contends Delta Seven Communications, an e-mail company run by Paul Boes and Denny Cole, sent marketing pitches that forged return addresses and were sent through computers hijacked from unsuspecting home and office users, a technique that is now commonly used by spammers trying to hide their tracks.

Mr. Boes now works for MaxxLength, a Seattle firm that sells penis enlargement pills, Mr. Richter said.

The lawsuits also are expected to name Synergy6, a New York marketing company, whose Web site, AmericanGiveaways.com, was promoted by Delta Seven's mailings.