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Spam Government The Courts News

Massachusetts Drops Hammer on Spam Gang 212

Posted by Zonk from the pork-profiteers dept.
karvind writes "According to story on BBC and Yahoo, the Massachusetts attorney general has filed a lawsuit against one of the world's biggest spam gangs. An emergency court order granted under the suit should see the network of websites the spammers ran shut down. Attorney General Thomas Reilly's civil complaint against alleged ringleader Leo Kuvayev and six other people associated with 2K Services Ltd. and Ecash Pay Ltd. Offered for sale on the websites were pornography, pills, pirated software and fake fancy watches."
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Massachusetts Drops Hammer on Spam Gang More

Massachusetts Drops Hammer on Spam Gang

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  • So who will win the PR war (Score:5, Funny)

    by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:50AM (#12509726)
    New York's Attoreny General

    or

    Massachusetts attorney general?

    Both are making huge names for themselves by fighting the fights no one else wants to touch.
  • "This type of spam is more than just an annoyance to consumers," said Mr Reilly. "It poses a real danger to people who may be fooled into buying counterfeit versions of prescription drugs or unwittingly open e-mail links to sexually explicit websites."

    Is this similar to states that send out notifications to their employees and citizens that buying drugs from Canada is acceptable, encouraged, and more inexpensive than buying them from any pharmacy in their local area? I guess I'm in danger.

    In this day an

    • Re:They have been shutdown pending the outcome... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Linker3000 ( 626634 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:54AM (#12509778) Journal
      In this day and age, if you open an email from someone you don't know and see links and you click them you are not unwittingly doing anything. You are just a nitwit.

      Yep - but if you're 'on the road' or even on a pay per minute dial-up connection then receiving this crap costs you money even if you just initially download the headers.
    • They have had their websites shutdown until they... ... form a new company, get new checks, and open new websites in different states.

      It's a nice story, but it won't change much until people are behind bars.

    • Re:They have been shutdown pending the outcome... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by no haters ( 714135 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:59AM (#12509825)
      Good Lord, who crapped in your cheerios this morning? A couple notes to your tirade:

      1) Counterfeit versions of prescription drugs != drugs from Canada; that should be fairly obvious.

      2) Clicking on a link that says it will take you to one thing, then takes you to another is most certainly doing something "unwittingly". Whether or not that person is a nitwit is irrelevant.

      3) I would absolutely classify shutting down a spam gangs ring of websites as "bringing the hammer down". They are no longer operational, and are in court. The only thing left to do is to convict them and make them pay monetary damages.

      Sheesh, mellow out, you should be happy you might actually start getting less spam.
      • Shutting down their websites, only to have them flee, change identies, and relaunch similar operations elsewhere is hardly "bringing the hammer down".

        Now, seizing their bank accounts, property or other valuable assets would be a start.

        Throwing them in jail would be "bringing the hammer down".

        you should be happy you might actually start getting less spam.

        Until their ability to flee and relaunch their spamming operation elsewhere is diminished, it's just too soon to be even remotely optimistic.

        N

    • Charges haven't been filed against them [geekinformed.com] as individuals. The attorney general (Mass.) is trying to get a court order to shut down the sites. Charges will probably come later, but they think the "Ringleader" is in Russia. I'm personally glad to see state attorney generals fighting the battle against the spam/spyware.

      Microsoft was actauly to one to provide Reilly with the information.
    • Nearly all the cases thus far felt like nothing more than a mild slap on the wrist. This is evident by the ever increasing volume of spam that floods our inbox daily, DESPITE all thse "prosecutions."
    • I don't see the hammer falling either. According to our experts, "Offered for sale on the websites were pornography, pills, pirated software and fake fancy watches."

      Well, let's see. If the porn is against the law, why isn't the MA atty. general obtaining a court order to shut down the retailer, wholesale distributor and producer? Then there's pills, of no specified type. Pirated software is Micro$oft's problem. Let Gates hire a few leg breakers and handle it.

      But those fake fancy watches, now... I had

  • No joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by superpulpsicle ( 533373 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:51AM (#12509740)
    My spam count has gone from "insane" to "alot". I guess we haven't arrested enough.

    • Re:No joke (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      So when it gets down to "alittle" you'll be ok?

    • I know what you mean (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *
      My spam count has gone from "insane" to "alot". I guess we haven't arrested enough.

      I know what you mean. My spam has gone in waves over the last month. I'll have a couple dozen each day that elude the filter and then suddenly 170+ in a few hours. And these fake Rolex, Pharmacy and pirate software are the bulk of what constitutes these waves.

      I figured there was a new player in spam who had just increased their volume immensely.

      Under the lawsuit Mr Reilly wants the defendants fined for breaking sta

    • Great, with these arrests now I'll never get that bottle of counterfit Viagra I ordered, get that great mortgage rate, or meet lonely local housewives.

  • Related info (Score:5, Informative)

    by Virtual Karma ( 862416 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:52AM (#12509745) Homepage
    The "Internet Spam Gang," as investigators called the group, is considered to be one of the world's largest spam operations and has sent millions of unsolicited e-mail messages for items like pirated software and counterfeit drugs. The gang is comprised of seven individuals and allegedly headed by Leo Kuvayev, who lives in Newton, a Boston suburb.

    As reported by www.cio-today.com

    • Re:Related info (Score:5, Informative)

      by Reliant-1864 ( 530256 ) <.ac.oohay. .ta. .hserakorabas.> on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:56PM (#12510484)
      The home in Mas. is his mother's address. In 2001, when I knew Leo, he had an apartment and an office in Montreal, Canada. His main partner at the time had already been deported to Russia. The guy will do anything for money, including.

      That partner dealt heavily in trafficking of Child Pornography, and while I was working at 2k Services, even considered doing it through the office (I didn't find out about that until after I'd quit).

      He also runs online casinos with his own software that's got quite a record on Casino Meister [casinomeister.com]

      His partner runs top100.org [top100.org] (including all the other domains on the same software) which is where a lot of child pornography gets trafficked.

      I used to work for Leo Kuvayev at 2k Services/ECash Services. I am grateful I quit years ago to move onto better jobs. I hope he and his partners end up behind bars. They have no ethics.

    • Re:Related info (Score:5, Informative)

      by Sentry21 ( 8183 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @01:14PM (#12510700) Journal
      Some more related info, for those who are interested.

      I used to work for Leo, but I got out before things went from bad to worse. Other coworkers and friends, as well as my roommate, weren't so lucky.

      Aside from the flash designers that he was paying under the table and the animal pornography and child pornography that he's gotten into distributing (the story didn't mention that though, I guess it's unrelated), he was just a really shady character. He was good friends with Alan Ralsky (who, at one point, both had and used my roommate's cellphone number several times), and he was all for doing whatever he could to make money. Truly, to those who believe in the capitalist ideal, he was an icon for all.

      Leo is a Russia-born American citizen; the address in Mass. is his mother's address, but Leo has relocated to Russia (the article says he might be, but I can confirm this). Aside from the big screw-ups that the article mentions, he's also done such wonderful things as trying to dock people's pay so their salaries match other employees, and he fired me because the secretary, with whom he was having an affair, told him that I'd said I was going to quit (which I didn't).

      I don't feel so bad now that I 'worked' for him for a few months, fudged my hours upwards by around 50-70%, and then went on vacation after I'd made a few grand off of him. Oh well.
    • The gang is comprised of seven individuals and allegedly headed by Leo Kuvayev, who lives in Newton, a Boston suburb

      Shall we dub them The Spam Seven, write a script and sell it to Hollywood?
      • Shall we dub them The Spam Seven, write a script and sell it to Hollywood?

        Only if it has a happy ending (i.e. if The Spam Seven meet a fate similar to that of the protagonists of Spartacus or Braveheart).

  • As a resident and tax payer of Massachusetts, I'm glad to see my tax money going to something good.

    Now Mit just needs to bring back the death penalty for these bastards.

    That would be wicked cool.

  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DeepCerulean ( 741098 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:53AM (#12509757)
    It's nice to see some spammers getting sued rather than some 12 year old girl who downloads MP3s...

    • Re:Good (Score:2, Insightful)

      by DeathFlame ( 839265 )
      Apples, oranges..

      These guys are being charged with breaking criminal law regarding spam.

      12 year old girls are being sued (not charged) for copyright infringement.

  • Go after the root cause (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kjfitz ( 256432 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:53AM (#12509758) Homepage
    This is nice but as long as there is money to made sending spam there will be plenty of border-line companies jumping into the gap to replace others taken down. This isn't going to end until we go after the companies selling their products through the spammers.

    • Re:Go after the root cause (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jarnis ( 266190 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:05PM (#12509883)
      Yes, but constant busts will increase the cost of spending spam.

      Only way to get rid of it, is to make it unprofitably expensive due to constant downage of servers & evasion of lawsuits being bombarded at you.

      Right now it's considered 'jaywalking', and therefore easy money. Once people start getting tossed into the can for it. For real. In numbers... THEN things may slowly start to change...
    • This is nice but as long as there is money to made sending spam there will be plenty of border-line companies jumping into the gap to replace others taken down. This isn't going to end until we go after the companies selling their products through the spammers.

      For this particular sort of spam, they're selling knock-offs of the products being offered. In that case, the companies whose knocked-off products are being spammed are very much the victims as well and certainly are participants.

      There are compan

    • RICO prosecutions are what's needed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by swb ( 14022 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:29PM (#12510164)
      Since this basically is an "organized" crime, what's needed is a RICO investigation. RICO (Racketeer-influenced and Corrupt Organizations act) is a special law crafted to fight organized crime. Essentially anyone knowingly involved in a criminal organization or providing it with support can face a shit load of jail time.

      One thing spammers DO need are hosting companies, internet service, a certain amount of banking services, and so on. The people providing them with these services need to be investigated as part of a RICO investigation. That alone will have a chilling effect, and there has to be a few prosecutions possible.

      Seeing THOSE guys guy down will do a lot to increase the risk of even doing otherwise "legitimate" business with a spammer, and thus the costs will rise even higher to the point where spam will not be profitable.

      Stopping people from spamming is impossible; cutting off their air supply isn't. The money goes someplace, and anyone getting a cut needs to start reviewing the glossy brochures for Federal Penetenieries.
    • Sure! So what's needed is a global clearing house reporting people who have send money to spammers so folks with a clue can stop by and 'reeducate' them.

      You know "Do you part... distroy the PC of a spam enabler today!"

  • How does spam STILL work?? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by alecks ( 473298 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:53AM (#12509763) Homepage
    I am still baffeld at how and why SPAM still works?!?! Everyone i know complains about spam, even the most non-technical people... Yet, apparently, some of them still go and buy stuff...

    I'd be very curious to see some figures on how much money was spent on spam-started purchases last year....

    • Re:How does spam STILL work?? (Score:4, Informative)

      by TomTraynor ( 82129 ) <thomas.traynor@gmail.com> on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:58AM (#12509815)
      The economics of it makes it worth their while. It costs very little to send out millions of messages. All they need is a few suckers to buy their product and they have already profited. For the software it does not cost much to buy CDs (I can buy them for about 35 cents/CD0 and the cost of the mailing. If they go via FTP for software delivery the cost is still lower.

      The spammers are playing on either ignorance or greed and it works.

      To get it to stop may well be impossible, but, we can do our bit to make the spammers life difficult. I do my part by having a homepage that friends and family can access to read about the latest scams/spams and I always try to educate people about why they should buy from legit local businesses.
    • It's not the spammers making money... it's people selling the spammers software and services... That is where the money is at.

      Like the 49 gold rush in California, the people that made the most money were marketing the "gold rush" and then selling the tools to mine/pan for gold.

      • I know people who buy things from Spam (Score:5, Interesting)

        by doublem ( 118724 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:15PM (#12510011) Homepage Journal
        I disagree. I knew a couple of people at my former job who actually bought things that were sent to them as SPAM. One coworker bought a "Digital Camera" that had no LCD and about 2 megs of internal RAM. The software for manging the thing was full of spyware. Without the software you couldn't get pictures off it, and without the spyware, the camera management software ceased functioning, so he decided to leave the malware on his work computer. The Network Admin actually got a dressing down from the company's owner for uninstalling the spyware and thus "Breaking Dick's camera" in the process.

        I tried to talk to the guy about buying things from Spam. He and the other staffer who bought junk like that compared it to buying things from mail order catalogs. "We can't stop those either, and they're harder to get rid of then just hitting the 'delete' button."

        When A----- said, "If it was a scam the police would shut them down" followed by a glare that made it clear she thought I was an idiot.

        A----- later had problems with a credit card number being stolen. I asked her if it was the same card she'd used to buy the camera. I was treated to a 15 minute tirade insisting I was paranoid.

        People buy things from Spam, and have no problems with doing so.

        • Re:I know people who buy things from Spam (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:56PM (#12510478) Homepage
          I can believe it. There's a lot of very stupid, very naive people in the world who are also very insistent that they're right.

          It's hard to argue with these kind of people, mostly because they've developed some kind of reality filter that doesn't let through anything that questions their beliefs. I've always assumed that without the filter, their psyche would collapse under the weight of the truth. You can try to pick away at the filter, but if you suceed they'll only become enraged at your for exposing the truth (and revealing to them their own filter, which they like to ignore).
          • It's hard to argue with these kind of people, mostly because they've developed some kind of reality filter that doesn't let through anything that questions their beliefs. I've always assumed that without the filter, their psyche would collapse under the weight of the truth. You can try to pick away at the filter, but if you suceed they'll only become enraged at your for exposing the truth (and revealing to them their own filter, which they like to ignore).

            If you want an interesting explanation for this beh

    • I am still baffeld at how and why SPAM still works?!?! Everyone i know complains about spam, even the most non-technical people... Yet, apparently, some of them still go and buy stuff...

      Since sending spam is so cheap, spamming can be profitable even if a tiny percentage of recipients responds. People have been falling for quack doctors for centuries, and modernization hasn't made us any smarter. As long as the recipients keep paying for getting the spam, it will be around. This leads me to believe

    • Yet, apparently, some of them still go and buy stuff

      Yes, and I have a rock that *APPARENTLY* keeps tigers away. I can personally attest that I have never been attacked by a tiger while I had the rock.

      This is one of the myths about spam: that it must work, because otherwise spammers wouldn't be doing it. And it's just that: a myth.

      It doesn't matter if people buy things from spammers, or if people don't buy things from spammers. The spammers will still spam because A) it costs them nothing, and B) they
      • I know people (Well knew, I've changed jobs since then) who buy things from Spam.

        I went into more detail here [slashdot.org], but the bottom line is there are people dumb enough to buy this stuff. The justification I've heard people give had a lot to do with people equating Spam with the catalogs they get in the mail. I've gotten a lot of derision from some people for claiming otherwise.
        • As many people here are fond of pointing out, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

          And as I said, it doesn't matter one whit if someone buys or not - spam will continue anyway, because there is the perception that it works (whether it actually does or not.)
          • the plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

            You're right. Even if it didn't work, the perception that it does will keep it going. It's not unlike a former boss. He recoiled in terror when I referred to George W. Bush as "The Shrub." He warned me that I should watch out for the Department of Homeland Security and started looking around as if solders were about to burst in through the windows to haul me off.

            The US Government is not, at present, hauling people off for being critical of the President, but the
        • I find it hard to compare spam with catalogs... the spam I get nowadays isn't even advertising anything anymoer, it's mostly in japanese (which I am completely incapable of reading), or just plain "filter-defeating" gibberish without any actual advertisement in it.

          Imagine going to Sears, picking up the catalogue, and finding that a) there are no pictures of anything at all, and b) the only pages that are not japanese are random garbage.
      • two questions

        do you have any of these magical rocks for sale?
        do you only take paypal or can i just give you all my bank details and let you deal with it?
      • Yes, and I have a rock that *APPARENTLY* keeps tigers away. I can personally attest that I have never been attacked by a tiger while I had the rock.
        This is one of the myths about spam: that it must work, because otherwise spammers wouldn't be doing it. And it's just that: a myth.
        It doesn't matter if people buy things from spammers, or if people don't buy things from spammers. The spammers will still spam because A) it costs them nothing, and B) they *BELIEVE* it must work, because there is so much spam.
    • Chutzpah: I read an advert in the small columns of the paper that offered to tell me the secret of making money through newspaper adverts for only $10.
      I sent off $10 - they sent back a reply telling me to place an advert in the paper.

      In reality, the spammer hijacks PC's through spamware, sends millions of junk E-mails,
      and gets a commission for every successful order, and can also resell access to that network of PC's to other spammers, along with your E-mail address, credit card information.
    • I'd be very curious to see some figures on how much money was spent on spam-started purchases last year....

      It's not so much about the total as the cost per lead generated (from what I recall from my marketing classes). Advertising channels are judged by cost per lead generated. To place an ad in a magazine, newspaper, on radio/tv, etc, it costs significant money. To send spam, it's a significantly smaller cost (virtually free if you already have the hardware/software/connectivity). So, even though SP
    • When you see something useful, you tend to be glad about this particular message. Noone likes spam about seminars on accounting and employment laws, but when I got spam about logistics seminar, my sister (who is writing a diploma thesis on this subject) seriously considered attending it.

      Computer geeks might have the principles to not buy anything advertised in spam, even if they need the product, but the majority of people are not like this.

  • Gang... :) (Score:5, Funny)

    by mreed911 ( 794582 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:54AM (#12509775)
    "Internet Spam Gang"

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What's their hand sign? Do they go around flashing their USB drive covers to each other to represent their set? Do they have license plates with their IP subnets? Yeah, boyee!

    • Now I want a license plate with my IP subnets on it!!!

      Where r my pills??!

      Damn this /.!

      • Actually, if you use hex, you should be able to get a 6-digit license plate that corresponds to a full IP-4 address...

        Hmmm...
        • I think you mean eight hex digits for a full IP4 address:

          Dotted Decimal (normal) - 207.142.131.235
          Dotted Hexadecimal - 0xCF.0x8E.0x83.0xEB
          Dotted Octal - 0317.0216.0203.0353
          Decimal - 3482223595
          Hexadecimal - 0xCF8E83EB
    • What's their hand sign? Do they go around flashing their USB drive covers to each other to represent their set? Do they have license plates with their IP subnets? Yeah, boyee!

      They wear Hormel T-shirts and viking helmets.

  • Drops what, a tiny plastic hammer? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kainaw ( 676073 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:55AM (#12509783) Homepage Journal
    FTA: So far no formal charges have been filed against Mr Kuvayev and his colleagues who are thought to be behind the two companies, 2K Services Ltd and Ecash Pay Ltd, that sent all the spam.

    So, what did they do? They filed a restraining order to have the websites shut down. A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST A WEBSITE!?!?!?

    FTA: Two phone numbers for Kuvayev and 2K Services in Canada were disconnected

    So, he disconnected his phones and moved. How long until he sets up shop again?

  • now if only the Mass Attorney General (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Richthofen80 ( 412488 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @11:57AM (#12509799) Homepage
    would file charges against the Big Dig Contractors, as well as the shitty state management, and the Mass Turnpike authority.

    While geeks are probably going to herald this as a great thing, a more cursory review might reveal this to be an easier way of filling the state's coffers, through lawsuits.

    A similar example might be how Tobacco Companies were sued and now provide a great deal of revenue to the states.
    • ... file charges against the Big Dig Contractors...

      HA! HA! HA!

      Oh my word, I can't stop laughing. You got a big belly laugh out of me on that one.
    • ..... might reveal this to be an easier way of filling the state's coffers, through lawsuits.

      I hear there's also lots of easy money to be made in persuing people who have monetary judgements against them by the courts, but skip flee, disappear, change identies, and presumably set up shop again to continue their misguided deeds.

      Now if only I could remember who those helpful folks were with this hot easy-money tip?

  • ...where will I do my christmas shopping?

  • When is the fight coming to Florida? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BronxBomber ( 633404 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:01PM (#12509843)
    Boca Raton, FL (which is near where I'm from) has been unofficially crowned king of spam.

    Given the area's high retiree population, this doesnt surprise me. After all, they can pick up their V1agra and c1alis practically right around the corner once the email hits their account!

    Read more about it at the Sun Sentinel [sun-sentinel.com].

    Between tracking sex offenders, fighting for Terri Schiavo, and getting slot machines taxed, theres little room for this on the legislative agenda.

    • That's not surprising. Florida seems to be the new Wild West, since criminals are so drawn to that overpopulated hell hole. You're correct about it not being on any agenda for the politicians. They're too busy sucking dick for the Religious Right and taking it from behind from the developers that are destroying a once beautiful place.
  • ... till after Mother's Day. My wife would have been pissed if I had pay full price for her Rolex.

    And I'm glad I stocked up on Cialis and Viagra for our anniversary.

  • Go get 'em! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mwood ( 25379 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:03PM (#12509866)
    "Offered for sale on the websites were pornography, pills, pirated software and fake fancy watches."

    Wow, that's 98% of my daily home email even *after* filtering. [applause]

  • (checks e-mail) (Score:2, Funny)

    by elhaf ( 755704 )
    Nope, still all spammy.
  • So how about a list of MTAs they're using?

  • Posturing for gubernatorial run (Score:3, Interesting)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:10PM (#12509943) Homepage Journal
    While I fully approve of this, it's important to note that this is clearly an attempt for the AG to boost his visibility and popularity for the 2006 gubernatorial election. It's no secret that Riley will be challenging Romney.

    That makes me question if he'll take a hard line and go for not only shutting them down, but setting an example for others, or if he'll take the easy approach of getting a settlement that makes him look good, but doesn't act as a deterrent.

  • Economic Analysis (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Veinor ( 871770 ) <veinor@gmail.NETBSDcom minus bsd> on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:11PM (#12509949)
    Suppose that the cost of stopping a spam e-mail at the source can be quantified, and same for the benefit for doing same (a stretch, but it's necessary for the following discussion). Then, society will stop spam e-mails as long as the cost of stopping the nth, (its Marginal Cost, or MC) is less than or equal to the benefit for stopping it (its Marginal Benefit, or MB).
    The MB is relatively low for stopping just one e-mail, since many filters stop these anyway. The MC, on the other hand, is relatively high, as we have seen. Therefore, the MC will catch up to the MB very fast, and very little spam will be stopped.
    • Therefore, the MC will catch up to the MB very fast, and very little spam will be stopped.

      Sorry, but I think I disagree. Your example treats stopping spam as stopping individual messages. But in the case in question, the single act of shutting these clowns down will stop untold millions of messages from being sent. The question is one of how we stop them, and there are different economies of scale depending on the target and the technique.

      For example: these guys can't make money without having somethi
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...wasn't it Gallagher who did that? He does watermelons and all sorts of food. I was pretty sure that Spam(r) was included.

  • smoke and mirrors (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Exter-C ( 310390 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:13PM (#12509976) Homepage
    Cases like this are a case of smoke and mirrors with a bulk of press coverage. In the end it makes very little difference until we see a drop in the SPAM emails being recieved by our email boxes.

    However on the plus side every little bit helps if we do see that little bit that these spammers have removed or potentially removed. Although im sure someone other spammer will probably just grow up and take over the room / bandwidth that the previous spamemrs where taking.

  • clueless local media outlets (Score:3, Insightful)

    by notnAP ( 846325 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:14PM (#12509992)
    As a Mass. resident, I'm thoroughly amused by the local media outlets... I've heard from both WBZ radio and WCVB TV News the story with a lead in saying something like...

    "If you live in Massachusetts, you'll be happy to hear you'll be getting less spam now that..."

    I'd be curious to see exactly how much spam from these guys was destined to Massachusetts people. Oh hell, don't bother. Borders are so... 1900's...

    Peter
    • "If you live in Massachusetts, you'll be happy to hear you'll be getting less spam now that..."

      That's funny. If spammers had any way of figuring out what state recipient email landed in, and they actually gave a sh*t, they'd send to everywhere but their own jurisdiction..
    • If you live in Massachusetts, you'll be happy to hear you'll be getting less spam now that..."

      the realality is of course "If you live in Massachusetts, you'll be happy to hear you'll be getting less hatred on account of less spam being send from you area"

  • Legal basis? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:20PM (#12510059) Homepage Journal
    So what is the legal basis for this suit?

    I'm hoping that they're using good old-fashioned fraud, false advertising, and similar laws. So often we see lawmakers rushing out to tackle the latest problem instead of law enforcement agencies using existing laws to crack down on the new behaviour.

    • Re:Legal basis? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ironsides ( 739422 )
      While I do agree that those laws should apply, I wonder about one thing. For false advertising (as an example) are those laws specifically written to only apply to print and tv adds? Or were they written to be universal against any advertisement (I.E. E-mail)? Just making sure that they can legally be applied tothe situation here.

      Aside from fraud and false advertising, lets also add in trademark infringement (fake viagra, rolex), mail fraud (fraud+stamp=mail fraud), wire fraud (that one alone is enough

  • Its not just the spammers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Zaai ( 817587 ) on Thursday May 12, 2005 @12:24PM (#12510108)
    Lets not forget why there are spammers. Spam exists because there are advertisers and because we make it work.

    What else could help to deterr spam?

    Legislation could be more effective if advertising through spamming was also illegal.

    Also, if we, the end users, would more easily see what companies are advertising through spam than that would hurt the company's image and be a deterrent. An idea for a browser plugin maybe?

    Also adding to effectiveness would be to block sites of advertisers that are on the spammers list. For example, a firefox plugin could automatically check if url's are spam url's and hide the URL and the sites, if the user chooses to.

    We need more than just legislation against spamming, the driving source of spam are the advertisers!

    • Re:Its not just the spammers (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Do you think that Joe Average cares if some company advertises through spam? It would be great if he did, but he just doesn't. Consumers care about low prices and low prices. Oh and they also care about low prices. It doesn't matter if the product is made by some 5-year-old kid in a sweatshop and advertised by spamming. Actually, an item like that would propable be quite cheap...

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