Earthlink Wins Another Spam Award: $16 million

linuxwrangler writes "U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. awarded Earthlink $16 million and an injunction against Howard Carmack for Carmack's use of Earthlink to deliver spam. Given that Earthlink is still awaiting payment of the $25 million it won against Kahn C. Smith last year, it views the injunction as the bigger of the two wins." A few more of these, and maybe the tide of spam will eb. Maybe. Nah.

Comments

That's "ebb"

[Osty]

Not "eb", but "ebb". "To fall away or back; decline or recede." Ebb.

Re:That's "ebb"

[_generica]

Not "grammer", but "grammar". "The study of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences." grammar

A real jerk

[LittleLebowskiUrbanA]

This guy used his relative's info for setting up accounts. When Earthlink talked to his 58 year old retired uncle, they figured out what was going on when he mentioned a nephew that works at home w/ computers. (I read the Wall Street Journal. Headline news!)

Re:I wish I could get in on this

[Eric Damron]

If you live in states with anti-spamming laws you may be able to sue the spammers. Not for millions of dollars however.

In Washington state we are allowed to sue for up to $500.00 per spam. However, the spammer must do something like give a false return address or misleading subject line.

You should check your state laws.

Re:I wish I could get in on this

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, you'd have to find the person, if you wanted to sue them.

Re:I wish I could get in on this

[t0rnt0pieces]

If you live in states with anti-spamming laws you may be able to sue the spammers. Not for millions of dollars however.

In Washington state we are allowed to sue for up to $500.00 per spam. However, the spammer must do something like give a false return address or misleading subject line.

Considering the amount of spam I get (sometimes hundreds per day, and I'm sure that's not an unusual amount), and the fact that 90%+ of them have fake return addresses, at $500 per spam I probably could sue for millions.

Death of a spammer

[Animats]

As I've mentioned previously, we had a problem with a spammer forging our Downside(tm) return address, resulting in over 16,000 mail bounces. It's been a headache, but all 24 of his "extreme rape" web sites, plus his billing sites, are now off the net.

Originally, he was buying hosting from several US ISPs, including Rackspace. We asked the ISPs to identify the site owner, as required by law (because he accepts credit cards) and when they found they didn't have good info on him, they killed his accounts. He was using about five ISPs at a time, and had his own DNS server so that he could quickly switch from one ISP to another as he was kicked off. The spam itself went out via open Telnet proxies. Whois info is plausible, but fake.

This seemed like a big-time operator, but over time, a different picture emerged. It became clear that this guy's business isn't porno. It's collecting credit card numbers. The porno sites were very shallow. ISP operators told us they were typically $5/month hosting sites with maybe 1MB of content. Some of the web sites were purchased with bad credit card numbers.

This guy kept coming back, typically buying bottom-level hosting through resellers. He tried a hosting service in Mayalasia and got kicked off. He tried one in Brazil and got kicked off. He tried a "bulk friendly" ISP in the US and got kicked off. Finally, he ended up with everything on a server in St. Petersburg, Russia. It took a few days, but he's been kicked off there, too.

We have some hints of who he is. We've spoken to some people he's dealt with. When we get a solid ID, we'll go after him for trademark infringement.

It's possible to win these things. It's time consuming, but persist. Trace where the money goes, not where the spam comes from. Follow up daily. Half an hour a day keeps the spammers away.

Re:Death of a spammer

[Animats]

California Business and Professions Code section 17538.

(d) A vendor conducting business through the Internet or any other electronic means of communication shall do all of the following when the transaction involves a buyer located in this state:

• (1) Before accepting any payment or processing any debit or credit charge or funds transfer, the vendor shall disclose to the buyer in writing or by electronic means of communication, such as e-mail or an on-screen notice, the vendor's return and refund policy, the legal name under which the business is conducted and, except as provided in paragraph (3), the complete street address from which the business is actually conducted.
• (2) If the disclosure of the vendor's legal name and address information required by this subdivision is made by on-screen notice, all of the following shall apply: (A) The disclosure of the legal name and address information shall appear on any of the following: (i) the first screen displayed when the vendor's electronic site is accessed, (ii) on the screen on which goods or services are first offered, (iii) on the screen on which a buyer may place the order for goods or services, (iv) on the screen on which the buyer may enter payment information, such as a credit card account number, or (v) for nonbrowser-based technologies, in a manner that gives the user a reasonable opportunity to review that information. The communication of that disclosure shall not be structured to be smaller or less legible than the text of the offer of the goods or services. (B) The disclosure of the legal name and address information shall be accompanied by an adjacent statement describing how the buyer may receive the information at the buyer's e-mail address. The vendor shall provide the disclosure information to the buyer at the buyer's e-mail address within five days of receiving the buyer's request. (C) Until the vendor complies with subdivision (a) in connection with all buyers of the vendor's goods or services, the vendor shall make available to a buyer and any person or entity who may enforce this section pursuant to Section 17535 on-screen access to the information required to be disclosed under this subdivision.
• (3) The complete street address need not be disclosed as required by paragraph (1) if the vendor utilizes a private mailbox receiving service and all of the following conditions are met: (A) the vendor satisfies the conditions described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 17538.5, (B) the vendor discloses the actual street address of the private mailbox receiving service in the manner prescribed by this subdivision for the disclosure of the vendor's actual street address, and (C) the vendor and the private mailbox receiving service comply with all of the requirements of subdivisions (c) to (f), inclusive, of Section 17538.5.

...
(g) Any violation of the provisions of this section is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.

This is very straightforward. No ambiguity here. Accept a credit card number on the Internet from someone in California without first providing real contact info, go to jail.

This is enough to get you talking to an ISP's management levels or their legal department, rather than the abuse department. From there, progress is usually rapid.

Re:This is way too hard

[minas-beede]

And it involves a lot of grunt work per spammer.

Who are the spammers in the Tulsa, OK area? I've got some pretty good evidence against someone there. Wasn't much work at all. I received a relay test message from him, I delivered it, now spam is arriving that (so sorry, Mr. Spammer) isn't getting delivered. Over 5000 recipients so far. The spam comes to my fake open realy through open proxy systems.

He's sending the relay tests from:

adsl-65-70-89-125.dsl.tulsok.swbell.net

He spams:

Subject: FWD: ASSET - BACKGROUND - MISSING PERSON SEARCHES..
Subject: FWD: BACKGROUND & ASSET SEARCHES - SAME DAY!
Subject: Fwd: background & asset reports - same day..
Subject: WE FIND MISSING PERSONS FOR YOU...OR NO CHARGE..
Subject: Re: WE FIND MISSING PERSONS FOR YOU...OR NO CHARGE!
Subject: Re: BACKGROUND & ASSET REPORTS - SAME DAY"
Subject: Re: background checks - same day service!
Subject: ASSET SEARCHES - SAME DAY SERVICE.
Subject: Re: BACKGROUND & ASSET SEARCHES - NATIONWIDE SEARCHES'

with this phone number for the marks to call: 1-877-269-3892

His relay test message went to timsmith777@connectfree.co.UK

He's been sending tests from that same IP for quite some time so I think it's the spammers IP, not an open proxy.

Re:I wish I could get in on this

[Jeffv323]

In Washington state we are allowed to sue for up to $500.00 per spam.

Actually, it's not up to $500, but exactly $500, or actual damages - whichever is greater.

See here.

-- Jeff

Hosting my own server

[Nonillion]

This is why I host my own e-mail server. It is FAR easyer to block unwanted spam than to have no control of my ISPs based e-mail account. SPAM has to be rejected at the mail server, accepting the e-mail and then filtering it out with your e-mail client does no good at all. It will be interesting to see if any of these SPAMers ever pay up.

Maybe when hell freezes over SPAMers will finally catch a clue...nahhh, I doubt it..

Re:I wish I could get in on this

[Kryptkrwlr_XTC]

Earthlink is not getting a penny, I live in Buffalo, NY (the home and base of operations of Carmack). Our Hometown News station went to his CRAPPY APARTMENT above his parents house yesterday. He lives in a pretty bad part of town, which isnot so strange since most of Buffalo is a "bad part of town". He definately wasn't making the big bucks.