A man who was once considered one of the world’s most prolific spammers, but who claimed to have changed his ways last year, faces new legal troubles over his e-mail marketing practices.
A long-time anti-spammer has filed a lawsuit seeking $27.4 million against e-mail marketing firm OptInRealBig, its founder Scott Richter and four of his alleged clients.
The suit was file earlier this month in California Superior Court by Ron Guilmette, proprietor of software concern Infinite Monkeys & Co. It accuses Richter and his clients of violating multiple sections of California’s Business and Professions Code by sending deceptive commercial e-mail into and from the state.
The suit alleges that by sending e-mail with subject lines such as: “Guilt-Free Eating — Try it FREE,” “You are approved for a NEW Computer and 10,000 USD,” and “Ronald, your debt legally cancelled!” the company violated California’s Business and Professions Code Section 17529.5, which outlaws sending e-mail with subject lines that “a person knows would be likely to mislead a recipient.”
The suit also claims that OptInRealBig, Westminster, CO and the other defendants violated California law by using a large number of different domains to send their e-mail in an attempt to avoid getting their campaigns blocked by ISPs because of the volume of their blasts.
According to the suit, the defendants used the multiple domains to deliberately try to hide that their e-mail was really coming from one source, and as a result, deceive recipients into not blocking their e-mail.
“[I]f defendants sent all their unsolicited e-mail from a single domain and IP address and each represented itself as the single entity that it really is, then ISPs, small and large businesses, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and government offices and installations would be able to easily, correctly, accurately and automatically identify the Internet sources of [the] defendants’ commercial e-mail messages and block or reject said messages,” the suit said.
The suit alleges that since the domain is part of an e-mail’s header, the headers in e-mails from the defendants were deceptive, which is illegal.
The suit also alleges that Guilmette and his company received 27,400 e-mail ads from the defendants, which also include, Nova Pointe, LLC, Ontario, CA, PetCareRX, Merrick, NY, National Association Credit Services, Clearwater FL, and DebtEraser, Ojai, CA — companies the suit alleges are customers of OptInRealBig.
At one time, Richter was considered the world’s third-most prolific spammer.
He settled a high-profile lawsuit with Microsoft last year for $7 million. The settlement was the second deal stemming from joint lawsuits Microsoft and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed against him in December 2003. Previously, Richter agreed to pay New York State $50,000 to settle Spitzer’s suit.
After the settlement with Microsoft, Richter said he changed the way he does business.
“In response to Microsoft’s and the New York attorney general’s lawsuits, we made significant changes to OptInRealBig.com’s e-mailing practices and have paid a heavy price,” he said in a statement released by Microsoft. “I am committed to sending e-mail only to those who have requested it and to complying fully with all federal and state anti-spam laws.”
Richter did not respond to an e-mail for comment.
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