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Lonely Wives Spam Email Users
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-09-18
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The Federal Trade Commission put a stop to four spamming operations, including one that sent out messages offering the recipient a chance to "date lonely wives."
 | | Lonely Wives Spam Email Users |  |
Cleverlink Trading Ltd is one of four companies settling charges of violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act and the Adult Labeling Rule. The company will give up $400,000 in gains amidst FTC charges that their spam "violated nearly every provision of the CAN-SPAM Act":
It contained misleading headers and deceptive subject lines. It did not contain a link to allow consumers to opt out of receiving future spam, did not contain a valid physical postal address, and did not contain the disclosure that it was sexually explicit. It also included sexual materials in the initially viewable area of the e-mail, in violation of the FTC's Adult Labeling Rule.
The Cleverlink settlement bars Cleverlink, Real World Media, Brian D. Muir, Jesse Goldberg, and Caleb Wolf Wickman from committing future CAN-SPAM violations.
Zachary Kinion was fortunate to elude repaying the $151,000 he made for his CAN-SPAM violations. His settlement with the FTC over spamming people and paying others to send his spam included a suspension of the judgment due to his inability to repay those gains.
A couple of other operations used third-party computers to send their spam. William Dugger, Angelina Johnson, and John Vitale had to give up $8,000 they made through spam sent through zombie computers. Users of those machines were tricked into installing software that permitted the forwarding of the spam.
The FTC called Brian McMullen, doing business as BM Entertainment and B Pimp, a "professional button pusher" who also routed spam through third-party computers. Like Kinion, he received a suspension of judgment due to his inability to repay $24,193.
McMullen is also awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to criminal charges related to his spamming activities, and the unauthorized possession of access devices - credit cards.
People can forward spam to the FTC by sending it to spam@uce.gov or by completing at form at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm.
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Tag: Spam
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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