Email spammer nailed with $11 billion dollar judgment

[tedster]

Not sure if this judgment alone can be a major deterrent (I think not) but the dollar amount is pretty impressive.

An Midwest internet service provider was awarded an $11.2 billion judgment
against a Florida man for sending millions of unsolicited e-mails advertising mortgage
and debt consolidation services...

The most recent judgment was issued Dec. 23 against James McCalla of Florida,
who is also barred from accessing the internet for three years.

[wired.com...]

[Neo541]

Okay, so the 11 Billion...Sure. But barred from using the internet?

<gulp>

Isn't that filed under "Cruel And Unusual?"

[Leosghost]

Luvv it!
Spamming is also totally illegal in France ..doesn't stop anyone based here from sending me any here that I can see ..

Plus on an ROI base when it comes from the US or India or China to my french ISP addy in english do they really think most recipients would understand it so they are ripping off their english language customers as well as costing everyone bandwidth..

Spam is the one thing that can kill the internet just by overloading the hardware ..no financial or custodial penalty is too harsh for the morons who do this ..

It's the data equivalent of global warming ..keep it up and they are gonna break the "machine" ..or planet ..

[jtara]

LOL, the judge imposed The Mitnick Penalty.

[Jon_King]

The wallet don't hurt. It has to be physical or emotional punishment... :) :) :)

[Leosghost]

<slightly OT the linked to site said to me

Note: You are reading this message instead of message board comments either because you have javascript turned off, are running software that prevents you from viewing 3rd party javascript files, or because you do not have a supported browser. Supported browsers currently include Firefox and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher on a PC, and Safari on a Mac.

so I switched js back on only difference was I got to see their adsense :o there were no comments ..dont trust the press :)

[Hobbs]

James McCalla could just sell his 6% share in AOL but with no ebay and email access I can't see how he can do it.

[tedster]

If virus makers were only punished by this yardstick ... and they could be.

[shallow]

Not sure if this judgment alone can be a major deterrent (I think not) but the dollar amount is pretty impressive.

Throw in capital punishment and it would be more impressive, in fact, just perfect!

[SEOPTI]

I hate email spammers.

[Leosghost]

If virus makers were only punished by this yardstick ... and they could be.

agreed ..except how are you gonna hit some script kiddie who downloaded a virii lab from the depths of asta' and then tweaked it into an "avril" trojan for 11 billion ..his kids would have to live for ten thousand generations to pay it off ..plus most of the time they just do not comprehend the damage potential of their data graffiti/tagging

the sony rootkit on the other hand ..and the 2 CEO's who knew what they were doing .. yeah ..can't wait for the outcome of the law suits there ;))

[lgn1]

Would a bankruptcy wipe out this judgement, or is he stuck with garnishment of salary for life, and the lost of all his assets?

[Leosghost]

AFAIK ..and IANAL ..depends if the judgement was civil or criminal ( article doesnt say )..maybe webwork or my "alter ego" ;))( we used to have more lawyers here ..not that I actually miss more lawyers ya know but there were more than 2 a few months back ) can advise here ;)

[hobbnet]

If people stopped clicking, buying and filling out forms from SPAM ads then SPAM would die out naturally. The only reason why it exists is because there is BIG money in it. And i'm referring to legal, commerical SPAM.

[Event_King]

In the UK it's legal to send millions of emails to business addresses - but you can be done for spamming 'personal addresses'.

I think it's a £5000 fine.

[Leosghost]

I thought some guy in the UK just won a case cos someone in a jersey business spammed him at his mainland business ..about 2500.oo sterling damages ..B2B spam ..last 2 weeks or so according to radio 4 .

[europeforvisitors]

Throw in capital punishment and it would be more impressive, in fact, just perfect!

Maybe spammers, virus authors, and click-fraudsters should be rendered to secret prisons in unnamed countries. :-)

[Leosghost]

And the agencies should drop by your place beforehand to help them make an informed choice of destination /resort? ;)

[littleprince]

The problem is it's actually profitable. I mean, no one would do it if even more people didn't buy into it...

I know a company that has a guy on full time spamming. He supposedly has like 5 days of spam queued up and it is very highly profitable to them

[Mike_Werner]

Is Spamming really big business? Maybe for the spammers, but for the business they promote, I got to wonder?

Are they really selling more #*$! creams when they send out million emails? Are there really people that stupid to buy stuff promoted via spam?

[disgust]

Are they really selling more #*$! creams when they send out million emails? Are there really people that stupid to buy stuff promoted via spam?

yes.

[Mike_Werner]

But are there facts to back it up. I presume we all think these companies are maling money, but most of them are fly by night operators who disappear quickly.

[RailMan]

I thought some guy in the UK just won a case cos someone in a jersey business spammed him at his mainland business ..about 2500.oo sterling damages ..B2B spam ..last 2 weeks or so according to radio 4 .

i think you might be referring to an incident where a man in jersey got spammed at his personal email address by a uk company - he claimed damages and was awarded something like £270 - not very much and certainly doesn't cover the hassle of reporting the spam

to report spam in the UK and get compensation is a lengthy process - i think to get compensation through the courts, you have to get proof that the spam really was spam - for example getting the advertising standards authority to agree that it was spam and take action against the spammers

i reported spam (to my personal email address) to the ASA a while ago - it took ages to deal with, lots of emails and phone calls, but the ASA eventually agreed it was spam - they cautioned the spammer - i guess it took about 20 hours of my time for one spam

anti-spam laws are just not strong enough and the authorities are too slow to react - i'd like capital punishment for spammers too ...........

[otech]

With regards to the 'Spamming is Illegal in Australia' comment, it IS illegal to send unsolicited emails in Australia - however nearly all of the mountains of spam I get never originated from here anyway - both before these laws passed and after...

I would love to charge persons that send me spam $10 per email - would probably make more than all my other ventures put together!

[weeks]

Hobbs wrote:

James McCalla could just sell his 6% share in AOL but with no ebay and email access I can't see how he can do it.

Bravo! Post of the month. Better analysis than the NYT or WSJ.

[Sunlee]

WOW 11.2 billion dollars, wow.
how is he ever going to pay for it?

[larryhatch]

I like Otech's idea. $10 per spam email, payable in USA $ to USA victims, $CD to Canadians etc.
(Europeans would get Euros of course.)

With GOOD legislation, all that takes is a legal judgement that "consolidate your Viagra loans"
(or whatever) is indeed SPAM.

ANYONE who received that message collects 10 (whatever) very simple.

Normal legal defenses would and should apply, in case a spammer hides behind innocent parties.
Otherwise, all ill gotten gains are forfeit.

All of this goes double for the inventors and propagators of viruses.
Teeny boppers? Suppose some kid sprays paint all over your brick/mortar store front?
Parents are then responsible. You create the monster, its your dime.

Anything less and there's no accountability here.

The very same principles, property rights and all, need to be applied to the electronic scene.
Those same principles have served us well for a long long time.

The tough part will be keeping politicians out of the mix. -Larry

[Hollywood]

So who gets the benefit of the 10 billion if he does pay it off? As usual none of those who suffered like me from the damage of time from SPAM.

I say X-em but I also say X the lawyers, these laws are never for those hurt just for those X-in lawyers scum who can turn another X-in buck to profit on another X-in scam.

Tell me I am wrong webmasters......

Hollywood

[Harry]

Seems like spammers have gotten better this morning, with a new batch of spam going through my my spam defenses... Did the guy sell his tricks? :)

[Mistra]

I am advocating for

DEATH SENTENCE FOR SPAMMERS!

They truly deserve death!

For the past 10 years I've been wasting my time deleting junk mails.