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Massachusetts Atty. General Forces Spammer to Pay

Posted by timothy on from the small-change dept.

Cildar writes "The Attorney General of Massachusetts has forced a Florida spammer to pay a $25,000 fine and enter into a cease and desist order. The original suit contained both state consumer protection theories as well as allegations of CAN-SPAM violations. Here is the Attorney General's press release.

11 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Cost of doing business by erick99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't think these court "settlements" slow this guy down at all. He was also successfully sued and ordered to pay $104,104 this past April. You can read about that case here. I am wondering if it is the case that he makes so much money sending spam that these fines and settlements are no more than the cost of doing business.

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    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:Cost of doing business by DiscoNick · · Score: 5, Funny

      He probably uses it as a tax writeoff!

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      Like Ebaums World? You'll love Shizzville
    2. Re:Cost of doing business by Brynath · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Well the settlement may not slow him down, but the fact that he "...must pay $25,000 and put an end to the practice..." could stop him from doing buisness as usual.

      We shall see.

  2. I'd Prefer Stoning by DiscoNick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Its a small start, but public stoning would be a more rewarding payback for those of us who stayed many late hours updating our spam filters.

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    Like Ebaums World? You'll love Shizzville
    1. Re:I'd Prefer Stoning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      What's your excuse for getting spam?

      Some people use the internet for more than just playtime, Threehead. Some of us have to maintain legitimate whois contact info for all the domains we're responsible for, and can't just go changing our email addresses every time another fuckload of spam rolls in.

  3. How about.... by rathehun · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...the penalty for distributing spyware be using a computer, only with Internet Explorer, NO access to Ad-Aware/Spybot/etc and forced to keep the "Cute Kitty" screensaver that somebody reffered to in the SETI story?

    I think he can then do his thing. Well, maybe he can use Gator to remember his passwords.

    Waste these assholes...

  4. Why settle? by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why did he settle instead of going all the way?

    Spammers spam because they think they have the freedom to spam, and the only way to stop this is to take away their freedom, ie some jail time.

    Failing that, I thought the fine is a bit small, but sooner or later, people will find the "threshold" fine to impose, which basically make the whole spamming business unprofitable.

  5. public results by cybergrunt69 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now if only they would seize all his computers and find all of the tools he used to send all this spam.

    Most likely, he's used the benefit of spyware to send this bs out. It would be really nice to make those results public, so it would shed a better light as to why we should protect against that crap...

    --
    --- "To ignore race and sex is racist and sexist!" -- Jesse Jackson
  6. What we need is a PROA by DiveX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Intil consumers have a private right of action as one exists in the telemarketing laws (Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 47 USC 227) then the CAN-SPAM or anything else will be toothless. The TCPA gives consumers the right to sue in small claims court for violations of the law and subsequent federal regulations. I have another hearing soon sgainst a local mortgage company that made a single, prerecorded call to my residential line. I have demanded a total of $5000 in damages (statutory damages of $500 per violation [with 6 violations] and trebled due to defendants willful or knowingly violation of the law) since that is my local court limit as well as will be demanding an injunction. This is just one person's action. If just a few more people knew their rights and enforced them, the mortgage could be taken out of business for even a single illegal telemarketing campaign or until they declare bankruptcy. Serves them right I feel, IMHO.

    --
    Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
  7. Running to the cameras by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    is all the Mass action is.

    $25,000, from what has been reported as spammer income in other stories linked from here on slashdot is less than a day's profit. The Mass. AG did the same thing the NY AG did, grab headlines to promote himself for future office, and tuck away an action against a popular cause.

    If the intention was to stop the spamming, the fine would have been higher, the AG would have forced the spammer to give up the mortgage brokers who are paying the spammer affiliate commissions for the leads, and the AG would have revoked the licenses of the mortgage brokers.

    But the mortgage brokers have friends in high places, and well placed campaign donations.

    Follow the money. Pull the licenses of the mortgage brokers. Pull the licenses of any other individual or company who pays a spammer affiliate money, commissions, or any other types of payments based on results of spamming. Delist public companies that pay spammers and fax.com in cash and stock to blast fax and spambomb advertisements to promote and raise awareness of their penny and dollar stocks.

    $25,000? A mosquito bite. The spammers are laughing at the Mass AG right now.

  8. Better than a fine... by Johnny+Fusion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Part of the Hackerdom's whipping boy's sentance was not being able to user the Internet for many years.

    I think this would be very fitting punishment for a spammer.

    --
    There are two kinds of fool. One says, This is old, and therefore good. And one says, This is new, and therefore better.