WOW - FTC targets porn spam operation
 

FTC targets porn spam operation
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 17, 2003, 11:31 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-997329.html

The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on a pornographic spam operation that it says has grossed more than $1 million in commissions and nearly 50,000 consumer complaints from a recent bulk e-mail campaign.
The government agency this week asked a district court to bar a Missouri man from further sending e-mail that contains deceptive subject lines, bogus reply information, and sexually explicit material designed to drive commerce to an adult Web site.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, charges that the millions of e-mail already sent violate the FTC Act, which prohibits deceptive and misleading acts in commerce.

"We want the court to order a permanent bar to the deceptive practices," said Claudia Bourne Farrell, an FTC spokeswoman. She said the agency's spam-research database has received 46,000 copies of the unwanted messages and complaints from Web surfers in recent months.

The case is the FTC's latest clampdown on spam. The agency has filed about 50 related spam complaints so far, and it has not lost a case yet, Farrell said.

The newest suit is the first to target deceptive subject lines. The defendant, Brian Westby, used benign subject lines such as "New movie info" to encourage people to open sexually explicit messages urging people to visit the adult Web site, "Married But Lonely," according to the complaint. Especially harmful, children or employees of companies with policies prohibiting such material at the workplace could be exposed to the spam in some cases, the complaint says.

Legal experts say that such lewd e-mail could open up a can of worms at corporations if it goes unchecked. Porn spam could begin to crop up in sexual harassment complaints from employees offended by the material, they say. Even if companies aren't the source of such messages, they could be liable for hefty civil fines if managers know that porn spam is a problem and don't move to address it.

Farrell also said that the Westby complaint is its second to address "spoofing," or e-mail that uses false "reply to" or "from" information that makes it appear that an innocent third party is the sender. Westby's e-mail allegedly contained false sender information so that when people replied to the senders, it generated thousands of undeliverable e-mail sent to these third parties. "It unfairly portrayed these innocent bystanders as duplicitous spammers, often resulting in their receiving hundreds of angry e-mails from those that had been spammed," according to the FTC.

The federal agency is "leaving the option open to see disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains if that's appropriate," according to an FTC representative. Westby is based in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin.

http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2102-1024-...l?tag=ni_print

Good, it's about fucking time. :thumbsup

Why don't they stop people from spamming engines with useless bullshit while they're at it?

This is the same guy that ran www.ifriendscash.com . clickcash say that they paid him the final check, he said they didn't. I'd be inclined to believe CC in this instance, meaning he stiffed webmasters for $35-40k.

Note the web site is still alive, but the program actually died 9 months ago when CC terminated the aggregate account for spamming.

Perhaps the bulk (haw, haw!) of the spamming came from Mr. Westby himself.

wow.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

why don't they stop bleeding pussy/tampon ads during lunch on TV!

why don't they stop sending me dead trees for pizza & shit in my regular mail every day? where's the opt-out for killing the rain forest?

Thats a classic!

Exactly my point, why do people cry so much about spam, just hit the fucking delete key.

Rule #2 - only spammers defend spam.

Rule #3 - Only people who don't get several hundred unfiltered spam mails a day to their email say "Just hit delete" - feel free to post your email in the clear if you want to be enlightened.

LOL Backov, I get about 300 spams a day and I'm not crying about spam ;)

Rule #4 - Naa Uhhh!



A) I'm not a spammer
B) I DO receive hundreds of spam emails a day...I got l33t delete button pushin skillz....and I do agree it's annoying...but it is more earth friendly compared to other forms of spam...


I agree there needs to be SOME regulation on e-spam, but if we're gonna talk spam, let's talk about shit that is equally if not annoying....PHONE spam & killing trees spam, etc...

Yes, I get hundreds a day and just hit delete. The psycho anti-spam people out there are just people desperate for a cause in life. Whales, trees, and fur were already taken.

It might also be mentioned that the FTC never 'loses' a case, since they never take one to court. There is ALWAYS a settlement, regardless of whether or not any fault can be found or not.

sign up to spam cop = get no spam

I guess the defendent's only other choice is poverty if they wish to take it to court and go all the way against the FTC.

No, that's not the case :)

One very large company in the adult space went head to head with the FTC a couple of years ago. They spent in legal fees but at the end of the day, they settled with the FTC, admitted no wrongdoing (probably because there wasn't any) and went about their business.

Because we dont like assholes that spam. We would rather cause them as much trouble as possible

...wtf , you are calling my support requests SPAM ???

That sound exactly like what is happening with what the Attorney Gen. of NY (Spitzer) and the SEC are doing to Wall Street firms lately - exacting large settlements out of them while not admitting any wrongdoings related to the scandals involving their analysts and the allottments of hot Internet IPO's a few years ago...

Do you like telemarketers and junk mail?

Is this that same ugly ass prick from New Orleans that is in every single news story about spam? He's on 60 minutes more than Morley Shafer! *Killing in the retirement home*

That's the one program I wouldn't even try spamming. They'll let you get away with some stuff, but fuck you over on any spamming.

It's all about pain threshold. Yours might be 3k, but you have one. ;>

As much as I'm a big fan of the delete button I have to agree with that one. My problem is with the people who's pain threshhold is five :)

Or the people who don't even get spam but start and run these stupid "organizations" to stop it. They should spend their time stopping people from waking me up on sunday morning to ask if I need an alarm system (which I have) or a newspaper (which I use the net for).

Their smart enough to keep the complaints down and keep the gov off their ass. You stupid fuckwads are doing yourselves in. dont blame us.

You are an idiot. I worked for 3 telemarketing companies when I was 18 and guess what, shitloads of complaints. The FTC doesn't give a rats ass as long as you pay for the ability to call and they damn sure wouldn't care about spam email if you had to register with them. Get fucking real.

:1orglaugh 2 funny :1orglaugh

yes but you want'em you just try to sell them some traffic. Right:Graucho

99% of sponsors will let you get away with spam as long as you send them alot of signups and they realize that they can get away with letting you do it. CC was probably hard on that guy because not only were his webmasters spamming, he had formed a union to try and get everyone more money out of CC than they had really earned. Fuck that guy.

Spam's not right, but I used to do it. It seems worth it to inconvenience a couple hundred thousand people a day to see your CC stats to read $1200 more than when you left your house that morning. I can't say that it's wrong for them to make laws against it, but I also can't say I'm not guilty :winkwink:

Then maybe all spammers should get registered. Catch one of those telemarketers peddling porn to 12 year olds and just see how long they last.

I may be an idiot, but it looks like your one of those stupid fuckwads. Dont whine to me, go tell the FTC what an unfair shake your getting.

Nope, you are assuming there was a monetary settlement by the defendants when there was not in this case. The FTC does NOT go to court. Right or wrong. All cases are 'settled'. In this particular one, not only did the defendant do nothing wrong, admit to doing nothing wrong, in addition they did NOT PAY a penny in fines or restitution since there was nothing to restitute.

It's a perfect example of goverment bureaucracy... the FTC doesn't drop cases, they 'settle' them. If you don't ever get in front of the judge then you never lose.

Backov my sweet, the only spams that bug me are the ones that auto-launch a browser with a ton of pop ups. Of course I have special presents for those guys, usually involving their sponsors not cutting them a check... the rest I don't care about.

As for Spamcop, anyone here that doesn't realize those guys are spammers building the biggest and best remove list on the planet is in lala land :)

what you mean? I signed up years ago, still get spam. Had to take my regular email address off my pages and put a Yahoo one on them. The last two months to my regular email, I've been getting a shit pot of bigger cock, cp, and other useless spam. I just keep reproting them, and it's the same ones over and over to spam cop.

-

FYI - Spam Cop was caught spamming themselves.

:thefinger

I'm in lala land. I had no ideal. guess I'll just be hitting the delete button now. Thanks :thumbsup

I'd really like to see a link or something on this please. Thanks in advance.

hahaha, you're a funny guy.. go back to your mom's basement and cry to you fucktard anti friends on newgroups who don't have lives either

12 y.o.'s don't equal money, sorry, its a fact.. but hey, maybe their parents should watch what they do and not let them surf around the net going to porn sites and entering in their emails...

oh and yeah, you are a idiot.... have fun flaming spammers tonight while I go out and have fun with all the money I make from spamming

50,000 complaints -- sounds like the guy was retarded...

This Jim Beam is... oooooh damn.

Call the mighty Buddah

it was spam arrest, not spam cop
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/26219

'Spam Arrest ' sending e-mail sales pitch
As an anti-spam company, you'd expect the founders to be relatively sensitive to spam, yes? Apparently that's not the case for one anti-spam company known as "Spam Arrest", who has been busy spamming potential customers, mining addresses and sending a sales pitch to anyone who had recently sent an e-mail to one of their customers. Using your anti-spam product to harvest your customers' acquaintances e-mail addresses has naturally got the folks over at Politechbot riled, with others there confirming the practice. One would think the marketing department at Spam Arrest would have thought twice before resorting to e-mail marketing?

Ok, I don't spam and I could really care less what they do with the law. I just don't like a bunch of whiny people over something so stupid. You do realize that if spam is outlawed it's not going to get any better? Now instead of hardcore porn the kids will be getting beast, scat, and rape spam from all the millionaire spammers that moved their business to Russia. :thumbsup

Glad to see it irritates you so much. That was the whole idea.