The four biggest Internet service providers—America Online, Earthlink, Microsoft and Yahoo— have filed the first major industry lawsuits under the new federal anti-spam law.
“Today we are collectively turning on the Can Spam Act,” said Nancy Anderson, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, in a press conference.
The six lawsuits were filed cooperatively by the ISPs against hundreds of defendants, including some of the nation’s most notorious large-scale spammers.
According the ISPs, the defendants violated Can Spam by suing deceptive solicitations; using open proxies as they sent spam to cover up their origins; using false from addresses, which is spoofing; and not including a valid physical address of the company and not including an electronic unsubscribe option.
The suits, which are on file with federal courts in California, Georgia, Virginia and Washington state, drew quick praise from the sponsors of the Can-Spam.
“Sen. Wyden and I passed strong legislation that has real teeth, and today’s enforcement of Can Spam will empower Internet users as they navigate the Net,” said Sen. Conrad Burns in a statement.
AOL filed two complaints. One charges Davis Wolfgang Hawke and others with transmitting millions of spam e-mail messages directing AOL members to Web sites selling Pinacle penis-enlargement pills, weight-loss supplements and other products.
AOL said in the court papers that it has tallied at least 10,000 member complaints about messages advertising these products. Messages were reportedly sent between July 1, 2003 and the present.
The Hawke suit also claims that the defendant offered to sell a number of illegal spam-related services, such as bulk-friendly hosting and millions of AOL addresses.
The other AOL suit alleges that from November 2003 to the present, unknown John Doe defendants have transmitted millions of spam messages to AOL members advertising numerous Web sites selling a variety of products like mortgage leads, adult-content Web sites and business opportunities.
The Earthlink complaints claim that since Jan. 1, John Doe defendants 1-75 have been responsible for “a substantial portion of the incoming spam on Earthlink’s network.” The millions of spam e-mail allegedly advertised Web sites selling prescription drugs, mortgage leads, cable descramblers, university diplomas and get-rich-quick schemes.
The defendants have hidden their identities with false domain names, headers, From lines and subject lines.
One of Microsoft’s lawsuits charges that John Does 1-50, also known as the Super Viagra Group, sent hundreds of millions of illegal e-mails to Hotmail subscribers advertising either Super Viagra or a weight-loss patch.
The complaint contends that the group routes its messages through open proxies and hijacked computers in violation of Can Spam. The identified domains are registered to individuals in Argentina, Turkey, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Lithuania and India.
The other Microsoft suit charges JDO Media Inc. with operating an automated multi-level marketing program that is advertised through spam. The lawsuit alleges that Hotmail subscribes have been “barraged by millions of illegal e-mails” advertising this e-mail.
The Yahoo suit charges Eric Head, Matthew Head and Barry Head with sending millions of spam messages. In January, some 94 million e-mails from what Yahoo calls “the Head Operation” were sent.
Yahoo alleges that the Head Operation violated Can Spam by using open proxies around the world to disguise the origin of messages; by sending unsolicited commercial messages; using deceptive subject lines; collecting and selling personal data, using false domains and using color font tricks to hide randomized text in an attempt to circumvent the Yahoo spam filter.
The lawsuits are touted by the ISPs as one of the accomplishments the four achieved as a result of an anti-spam alliance formed by them in April 2003.
The first suit under the new law was filed March 4 against home-improvement guru Bob Vila’s Web site. It was filed in federal court on behalf of Foster City, CA-based ISP Hypertouch Inc.
The suits were also praised by the Direct Marketing Association.
"Today's announcement puts spammers on clear notice that there is a coordinated effort being waged against them and that their days are numbered," said CEO H. Robert Wientzen in a statement. "Spammers have long thought they could hide forever in the shadows of cyberspace and continue to commit their crimes. Now they will start to realize that they can, and will, be found, and there will be serious consequences when that happens."
Wientzen added that the DMA is assisting the Federal Bureau of Investigation in bringing about criminal action against spammers.
