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Oh No Ofoto Busted For Spamming
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-05-16
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Kodak Image Gallery, formerly called Ofoto, sent out a lot of emails without the federally required opt-out information included.
 | | Oh No! Ofoto Busted For Spamming |  |
In the long and frustrating annals of spam, Kodak isn't exactly known as a spam king. But about a year and a half ago, its Ofoto unit sent out 2 million emails to recipients.
Those emails were missing a few details, and the Federal Trade Commission soon became involved. They hit Kodak with a handful of allegations about their email campaign:
The FTC charged that Kodak Imaging Network, formerly Ofoto, Inc., sent a commercial e-mail message to more than two million recipients that failed to contain an opt-out mechanism, failed to disclose in the e-mail message that consumers have the right to opt-out of receiving further mailings, and failed to include a valid physical postal address, as required by law.
A Kodak spokesperson played down the campaign in a comment made in a Reuters report:
"This incident, which took place over a year and half ago, was a simple technical malfunction that caused the customary text to be removed from the e-mail," said Kodak spokeswoman Liz Scanlon. "We identified the problem, took steps to correct it and are confident it won't happen again."
Kodak may think the FTC made too much of a federal case out of the mass mailing. Being a US government agency, the FTC does make federal cases out of violations of the CAN-SPAM act.
Few will consider the penalty particularly harsh. Kodak has to give up the $26,331 in gross proceeds it made as a result of the mass mailing campaign.
Jewelry retailer ICE.com also ran afoul of the FTC. It sent messages to over 6,000 recipients who had opted out of receiving future emails from the company. The company will have to pay $6,500 to settle the FTC's complaint against it for doing so.
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Tag: Kodak
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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