AOL sues spammers

[hershie]

America Online sues spammers


By Jim Hu
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 15, 2003, 8:41 AM PT


America Online on Tuesday said it is filing five lawsuits against individuals and companies that are allegedly purveying bulk unsolicited e-mail, or spam, to its members.

The lawsuits, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seek at least $10 million in total damages along with court orders to immediately stop the alleged practices.

Spam, one of the most reviled by-products of the Net, creates headaches for computer users and for Internet companies such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo and EarthLink that offer e-mail as part of their services. Subscribers have routinely criticized AOL for the proliferation of unwanted e-mail in their in-boxes, causing the company to take a litigious policy towards alleged spammers.


AOL has taken spammers to court and has won lawsuits that resulted in monetary fines and a discontinuation of its practices. In April 2002, AOL won an injunction along with a "significant" monetary settlement against Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Netvision Audiotext.

Microsoft has also taken the legal route by suing alleged spammers on behalf of its popular free e-mail service Hotmail. In February, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against undisclosed defendants accused of employing a "dictionary attack," where a computer program goes through dictionary entries to fish out Hotmail account passwords.

The problem has also alerted federal lawmakers to craft policy to punish spammers. Last week, a pair of U.S. senators reintroduced a bill, called the CAN-SPAM Act, that would make it a federal offense to send spam using false return e-mail addresses. AOL supports the bill.

The defendants named in AOL's latest round of lawsuits are alleged to have engaged in fraudulent and misleading e-mails peddling pornography, software products, college degrees, male organ growth, steroids and mortgage leads. Some defendants are named; others are so-called John Does.

AOL said the defendants allegedly sent 1 billion e-mails that resulted in 8 million complaints among its members.

http://news.com.com/2100-1032-996899.html?tag=fd_top

[Raven]

What I find ironic...is...AOL is THE largest spamming virus I have ever seen. It takes over my computer....I get those stupid CD's in the mail....they are everywhere.....I don't ever remember opting in....unless you count joining AOL for my dial up connection....

[Magnus3x]

I agree.. they have plagued the Earth with their stupid CD's. There is a company in California you can send all your cd's to, when they reach a few hundred million they are gonna drive a truck to the headquarters and dump them on the lawn!!

[Raven]

Originally posted by Magnus3x
I agree.. they have plagued the Earth with their stupid CD's. There is a company in California you can send all your cd's to, when they reach a few hundred million they are gonna drive a truck to the headquarters and dump them on the lawn!!

I think CDSmith posted something to that effect over at Tuna Fish Bitch....I thought it was a riot.

Spammers suing spammers. Sigh.

[hershie]

They reported the single largest annual corporate loss in the history of business last year, and in fact there is discusiion that they will shortly be dropping the AOL name from AOL Time Warner all together soon. The shares of AOL trade lower then Time Warner did alone before the merger and they would love to ditch the AOL division but nobody wants it. I imagine they are trying to recoup whatever they could with things like lawsuits...now that they have no reputation or integrity to protect.