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"By SAUL HANSELL
Published: December 18, 2003
liot Spitzer, the New York state attorney general, and Microsoft each filed suits today charging one of the nation's most prominent e-mail marketers with fraud stemming from sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, commonly known as spam.
The suits name three companies, including OptInRealBig, which is run by Scott Richter, who Mr. Spitzer said was the third-largest source of spam in the world, sending more than 250 million messages a day. Mr. Richter has been an outspoken defender of his marketing practices. He said in an interview on Wednesday that the accusations were baseless.
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Mr. Spitzer said he would seek $20 million in damages from Mr. Richter and the other defendants.
"We will drive them into bankruptcy," Mr. Spitzer said in a news conference today in New York. "Therefore others will not come into the marketplace because they will see there is no viable business model here."
The lawsuits, the most prominent in a recent flurry of legal efforts to attack spammers, are expected to shed light on the complex web of relationships and technologies behind such e-mail. They also represent an attempt to hold responsible not just those accused of sending e-mail fraudulently, but also those who benefit financially.
On Tuesday, President Bush signed a law that makes it a crime to send deceptive commercial e-mail. But even in advance of that law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, state and federal authorities have started to move more aggressively against some of the most prominent bulk e-mailers and companies advertised by spam."
Yeah!
Published: December 18, 2003
liot Spitzer, the New York state attorney general, and Microsoft each filed suits today charging one of the nation's most prominent e-mail marketers with fraud stemming from sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, commonly known as spam.
The suits name three companies, including OptInRealBig, which is run by Scott Richter, who Mr. Spitzer said was the third-largest source of spam in the world, sending more than 250 million messages a day. Mr. Richter has been an outspoken defender of his marketing practices. He said in an interview on Wednesday that the accusations were baseless.
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Mr. Spitzer said he would seek $20 million in damages from Mr. Richter and the other defendants.
"We will drive them into bankruptcy," Mr. Spitzer said in a news conference today in New York. "Therefore others will not come into the marketplace because they will see there is no viable business model here."
The lawsuits, the most prominent in a recent flurry of legal efforts to attack spammers, are expected to shed light on the complex web of relationships and technologies behind such e-mail. They also represent an attempt to hold responsible not just those accused of sending e-mail fraudulently, but also those who benefit financially.
On Tuesday, President Bush signed a law that makes it a crime to send deceptive commercial e-mail. But even in advance of that law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, state and federal authorities have started to move more aggressively against some of the most prominent bulk e-mailers and companies advertised by spam."
Yeah!
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