A California direct marketing company was ordered to pay $3 million in civil penalties and $375,000 in restitution to the Seattle school district as the result of Washington’s first lawsuit under the federal Can Spam Act of 2003, the state’s attorney general announced yesterday.
AvTech Direct, Woodland Hills, CA, was ordered by the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington to pay $2,000 each for 1,500 unsolicited commercial e-mails sent to the Seattle school district between May and July of 2004, according to the state’s attorney general. Each of the e-mails was in violation of the federal Can Spam Act and the state’s consumer protection act, the attorney general said.
Under the Can Spam Act of 2003, all e-mail advertisements must contain valid headers and contact information. Also, e-mail senders must comply with receivers’ requests to be removed from subsequent mailings.
Though this is Washington’s first lawsuit under Can Spam, it isn’t the first nationally. Most recently, a man known as “The Timeshare Spammer” was sentenced to one year in prison in November.
Peter Moshou, of Auburndale FL, sent millions of unsolicited commercial e-mails using Atlanta-based EarthLink’s network, the company’s civil lawsuit said. The messages, sent throughout 2004 and 2005, were about brokerage services for people interested in selling their timeshares.
EarthLink filed the civil lawsuit against Moshou in January and later handed its investigation over to federal prosecutors. Moshou was also ordered to pay EarthLink $120,000 in restitution.
Meanwhile, AvTech was also ordered to pay $67,882 in attorney fees.
“The attorney general’s office alleges that AvTech Direct blanketed Seattle School District employees with at least 1,500 unsolicited commercial e-mail messages in just two months,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a statement. “Not only were the advertisements deceptive, but the company continued to send them to consumers who requested to opt-out of future solicitations.”
AvTech is apparently no longer in business. One of its proprietors is in federal prison and the other is cooperating with authorities, according to Kristen Alexander, a spokeswoman for the Washington state attorney general’s office.
“We do know where the previous owners are and we are definitely going after the money,” said Alexander. “This was a $25 million company. We have to determine where those funds are, and as to what that’s going to entail, I don’t have details.”
According to the state’s complaint, AvTech marketed desktop computers to consumers and employees of non-profit organizations in Washington and nationwide since at least 2003 through unsolicited e-mail. The e-mails offered a “limited allotment of brand new, top-of-the-line, name-brand desktop computers at more than 50% MSRP,” the attorney general’s announcement said.
The Washington attorney general alleged that AvTech violated the federal Can Spam Act by altering or concealing header information to make it appear the messages were sent from other sources and using deceptive subject lines such as “Staff Bulletin.” The company also allegedly continued to send e-mails to recipients who requested not to receive future solicitations.
The complaint also alleged that AvTech claimed the computers, which were priced at $297, featured “the latest Intel technology” when they did not.
A Google search reveals a litany of complaints about AvTech Direct.
“AvTech Direct is claiming (via e-mails) you can buy inexpensive computers from them, but instead they take your money and run,” says one complaint on consumer-protection activist site BadBusinessBureau.com
Moreover, the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau gave AvTech Direct an “F” rating meaning it “strongly question[s] the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.”
The telephone number listed on the Better Business Bureau’s site for AvTech was disconnected.
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