A firm reputed to be one of the largest spammers in the country, has been hit with twin lawsuits by Microsoft Corp. and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Complaints announced yesterday accuse Synergy6 Inc., of New York, and its president Justin Champion of hiding behind false identities, forged e-mail addresses and a worldwide network of over 500 compromised computers in violation of New York’s deceptive practices law.
Also named as defendants were OptInRealBig.com, LLC, and its president Scott Richter; and Delta Seven Communications, LLC, and its principals Paul Boes and Denny Cole.
Spitzer, citing published reports, claimed that the defendants send more than one billion junk e-mails per week.
His office is seeking penalties of $500 for each deceptive act, and an injunction barring the companies and their principals from continuing to send spam with false sender IDs and subject matter headings.
Richter told Reuters that he intends to fight the suit, and added that it would take “an army of lawyers.”
The case began with a probe by Microsoft. The defendants sent millions of e-mails in a single month to Hotmail e-mail accounts set up by Microsoft to investigate spammers.
Spitzer’s complaint alleges that the defendants:
*Used the names of legitimate companies in ‘from’ lines.
*Relied on forged e-mail addresses to hide the true source of the e-mails.
*Forged e-mail addresses that led some consumers to believe that their own e-mail accounts had been hijacked.
*Indicated in subject lines that the e-mails were part of an ongoing conversation.
*Used recipients’ names to make it appear that they had sent the e-mails to themselves.
Spitzer’s suit was filed with the New York State Supreme Court in New York. A separate suit was filed by Microsoft with the King County Superior Court in the state of Washington.
“This type of collaboration between the New York Attorney General and technology leaders like Microsoft will strengthen our ability to stop illegal spam and enable all of us to regain control of our inboxes,” said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, in a statement.
“Spam has crossed the threshold from a mere annoyance sent by small-time junk peddlers to large financial burden on e-commerce and sent by technologically sophisticated groups with international resources,” Spitzer added in a statement.
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