Marketer to Pay $900,000: FTC
An Internet marketer will pay a $900,000 civil penalty for violating the Can-Spam Act, the largest penalty yet for illegal spam, the Federal Trade Commission announced last week.
The FTC alleges that San Francisco-based Jumpstart Technologies LLC, offered free movie tickets to consumers in exchange for the names and e-mail addresses of five or more of their friends.
Jumpstart then sent them commercial e-mails with the consumer’s e-mail address in the “from” line and a seemingly personal “subject line,” such as, “Hey,” “Happy Valentine’s Day,” “Happy New Year,” “Movie time. Let’s go,” or “Invite,” the FTC said.
Jumpstart also made it look as if the consumer had written the message text to circumvent spam filters. Recipients thought the e-mails contained personal correspondence, the FTC said.
According to the FTC, Jumpstart violated provisions of the Can-Spam Act by sending commercial e-mails with false or misleading subject and from lines, sending e-mails more than 10 business days after receiving an opt-out request from consumers, not clearly identifying messages as advertising or solicitations, and not clearly informing recipients that they could opt out of receiving more e-mails.
According to the FTC, people received six or more e-mails urging them to join FreeFlixTix, some containing advertisements for other products or services offered by Jumpstart or its partners.
In many instances, the subject lines of the e-mails falsely indicated that their friend was sending them free tickets, and many people who tried to opt out of the promotion kept getting similar e-mails for weeks afterward, the FTC said.
The FTC’s complaint also alleges that the company engaged in deceptive advertising by misleading consumers about the terms and conditions of the FreeFlixTix promotion. To qualify for a “free” movie ticket, some consumers had to submit their credit card information to one of Jumpstart’s advertising partners and sign up for one of their promotions.
Certain advertising partners required that consumers pay for the promotion, while others made “free” offers that had to be cancelled at a later date to avoid a charge, the FTC said.
A call to a telephone number listed for Jumpstart rang unanswered.
